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No timed-exclusive DLC for Fallout 4, Bethesda says
In the current age of console gaming, we've seen this outrageous trend of carving out a portion of a game and only making it available to a specific console. It's called timed exclusives, and it's a new way to make exclusive content without actually having to make an exclusive game. Activision has done it with Destiny, Square Enix has done it with Rise of the Tomb Raider--but Bethesda has affirmed it won't be participating in this ridiculous charade with Fallout 4.
In a recent Twitter exchange, Bethsoft's VP of Marketing and PR Pete Hines officially declared that Fallout 4's content won't be locked behind a console-gate, suggesting that the game will be the same across all platforms. "We aren't doing a DLC exclusive with anyone," Hines said poignantly.
Bear in mind that Fallout 4 does have a $30 Season Pass that unlocks all of the game's planned DLC. Bethsoft isn't about to pull an Evolve and shell out multiple passes either; this is a one-off purchase that grants "all DLC ever released for Fallout 4".
Continue reading: No timed-exclusive DLC for Fallout 4, Bethesda says (full post)
Facebook has 'dramatically' increased VR spending, and it won't stop
After spending $2 billion acquiring Oculus early last year, Facebook has just announced it has "dramatically" increased its investment into virtual reality, where it will spend even more money on VR over the next decade.
Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer spoke with the Financial Times during the Oculus Connect developer conference in LA last week, where he said: "We are investing more year over year... We've got a multiyear plan for this worked out over a fairly long time horizon". Schroepfer didn't state a specific number, but he did say that Facebook will spend hundreds of millions of dollars bringing the Rift to the market, and over the coming years, it will turn into billions of dollars.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he thinks VR will become a dominant communications and entertainment technology (something we totally agree with) and that the early Rift sales will increase "slowly" when it launches early next year. Schroepfer added: "When we started to get engaged in this, the big conversation we had was that this is going to take a long time and it will require a sustained commitment from us over many years, more like a decade, to really see this through and solve all the technical, content or artistic problems we need to solve. But if we can do this, it's going to be the most interesting thing we're ever going to work on".
Continue reading: Facebook has 'dramatically' increased VR spending, and it won't stop (full post)
Apple sold 13 million new iPhones over launch weekend
Apple today announces that its new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus models have sold 13 million units within the first three-day period, breaking last year's 10 million sales of the iPhone 6 in the same period.
TechCrunch notes that the sales equate to roughly 3,000 iPhones sold every minute, and 50 iPhones sold every second. It's worth noting that this time around Apple opened up pre-orders for a full two weeks before launch, and also included China, a region that accounts for a vast number of iPhone users.
"Sales for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple's history," Apple's CEO Tim Cook said in the official press release. "Customers' feedback is incredible and they are loving 3D Touch and Live Photos, and we can't wait to bring iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to customers in even more countries on October 9."
Continue reading: Apple sold 13 million new iPhones over launch weekend (full post)
Audi confirms 2.1 million cars use emission cheating software
The barrage of legal woes against Volkswagen continues as the auto company confirmed that approximately 2.1 million Audi vehicles across the globe are equipped with software that's specifically designed to cheat diesel emission tests. The auto titan was reportedly told some four years ago that the software posed a significant legal concern and would one day jeopardize the entire company, but VW ignored the warnings.
The software was specifically designed to recognize when emission tests were being conducted, then obfuscate actual diesel emissions by shifting into a low-emissions mode. Volkswagen clarified that over 1.42 million Audi vehicles in Western Europe had the software, with 13,000 cars in the United States and 577,000 in VW's native homeland of Germany.
The "Dieselgate" scandal has taken a serious toll on Volkswagen; shortly after the scandal broke VW shares fell by 30%, and the company has since suspended its heads of research and development. VW CEO Martin Winterkorn jumped ship after the guitly admission, and Porsche exec Matthias Mueller stepped in as acting CEO to take control over the company as it faces turbulent waters ahead.
Continue reading: Audi confirms 2.1 million cars use emission cheating software (full post)
The Witcher 3 sold 1.8 million copies on PC, which is 30% of all sales
Just how well did The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt do on the PC? Not too shabby; DSOGaming reports that from their calculations, "at least 30%".
In their recent article, GSOGaming said: "This means that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt sold, at least, 1.8 million copies on the PC. This basically means that the minimum percentage of the PC sales - compared to the total sales - is 30%. Again, this is pure speculation as we don't have the full picture here".
Then we have Karolina Gates from CD Projekt Red, who said that as of June 30, 30% of the sales were on PC. This means that the PC version of the game has been doing quite well, even up against the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game.
Continue reading: The Witcher 3 sold 1.8 million copies on PC, which is 30% of all sales (full post)
Thanks to the iPhone 6S camera, 4K will now be 'mainstream'
Apple revealed its new iPhones a couple of weeks ago, with the new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus featuring 13-megapixel rear-facing cameras that are 4K-capable. This is a big jump from the 8-megapixel shooters on their predecessors, that were only capable of 1080p video capture.
But media outlets like CNET are saying that the new iPhones will usher in the start of 4K, making it mainstream. This is because tens of millions of customers will buy the new iPhone, and will make 4K go "mainstream" as right now, we have a "scarcity of content", which is true. CNET adds that you "don't have much reason to pay more for a 4K television, laptop or computer monitor when there isn't much stuff to watch that way", which is again, very true.
But the likes of Samsung and Sony have have smartphones with 4K-capable cameras for years now, with Beachfront Media CEO Frank Sinton adding that "4K cameras on popular smartphones like the iPhone will create a huge amount of content". He also said that "It's definitely going to be pushing Hollywood toward doing more".
Continue reading: Thanks to the iPhone 6S camera, 4K will now be 'mainstream' (full post)
Tarantino hates Netflix, still uses VHS
For a director who boasts his own in-home 35mm cinema and has led the campaign to keep film alive, along with crusading a 70mm release for his upcoming feature 'The Hateful Eight', you'd think Quentin Tarantino would insist on only experiencing films in the absolute best quality possible. So it's more than a bit of a surprise that he's still using ancient VHS technology.
In an excerpt from Tom Roston's upcoming book 'I Lost it at The Video Store: A Filmmakers' Oral History of a Vanished Era', explains his reasoning "I have the videos from Video Archives. They went out of business, and I bought their inventory. Probably close to eight thousand tapes and DVDs. I have a bunch of DVDs and a bunch of videos, and I still tape movies off of television on video so I can keep my collection going." Tarantino continues with the admission he also doesn't dig non-physical formats. "I am not excited about streaming at all. I like something hard and tangible in my hand. And I can't watch a movie on a laptop. I don't use Netflix at all. I don't have any sort of delivery system.
Continue reading: Tarantino hates Netflix, still uses VHS (full post)
NVIDIA rumored to be working on a new next-gen dual-GPU video card
According to the latest rumors, NVIDIA is working on a new dual-GPU video card that would use two of the company's GM200 GPUs, the same GPUs that power the GeForce GTX 980 Ti and Titan X, on a single card.
WCCFTech is reporting that NVIDIA held "secret" meetings in NYC last week, but they failed to report that there were meetings in LA, too. We were in LA and NVIDIA said nothing to us about a dual GPU card coming soon, as the event was all about the GTX 980 going into laptops. We might have been left out of the loop of course, but we are throwing a lot of salt across our shoulders on this one folks.
But, that doesn't mean it's not credible. NVIDIA is more than capable of releasing a new dual GPU card thanks to its super-efficient Maxwell architecture. Better yet, the "secret" meetings that were held did concentrate on how the company had shrunken down the board that the new GTX 980 goes onto, so what I will add to these rumors is that with two of these boards, a dual GTX 980 could be easily possible and not break through a 300W TDP.
Continue reading: NVIDIA rumored to be working on a new next-gen dual-GPU video card (full post)
Ad-blocking apps accepting payments to let ads through their filters
We all know advertising makes the world go round, but there are some people who pay to opt out of seeing ads, but what use is paying that bill every month if ad-blocking companies are allowing them to hit you anyway, all while making money out of it.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that ad-blocking companies are taking in payments from specific publishers that would see ad-free subscribers receiving ads anyway. The WSJ reports: "Eyeo GmbH, the company behind popular desktop ad-blocking tool Adblock Plus, now accepts payment from around 70 companies in exchange for letting their ads through its filter. Eyeo stipulates that they must comply with its "acceptable ads" policy, meaning their ads aren't too disruptive or intrusive to users. In total, ads from some 700 companies meet the acceptable ads policy".
Better yet, is that Eyeo has been contacting other ad-blocking developers to make deals that would see their ads pushed through their filters to more paying ad-blocking customers, for a fee of course. Eyeo reportedly "seeks payment from any firm that generates more than 10 million unblocked ad impressions a month". The WSJ reports that Eyeo's cost is associated revenue that their clients make from the ads that they allow through their filters.
Continue reading: Ad-blocking apps accepting payments to let ads through their filters (full post)
Fallout 4's install size is surprisingly light
Fallout games have always been tremendous timesinks that demand hundreds of hours of play, but Bethesda has usually been pretty good about optimizing install sizes for all its games. Fallout 4 won't be any different: according to a listing on the Xbox Marketplace, Fallout 4 only weighs in at 28GB on the Xbox One.
While the file size hasn't been revealed for PlayStation 4 or PC just yet, most multi-platform games stay within the same storage requirement ranges. We shouldn't see any major discrepancies other than a few gigabytes or so difference. With a number of high-profile games releasing on the coming months, Fallout 4 fans can at least rest easy knowing they won't have to make too much room for Bethesda's post-apocalyptic adventure.
Then again, Fallout 4 doesn't really tap that well of incredible fidelity that we see in most AAA games, so the devs have a lot less layered data to optimize. The lack of pristine graphics should shave off a good portion of the game's required storage. Bethesda has outright admitted that they had to water down the graphics as a trade-off to maintain other parts of the game.
Continue reading: Fallout 4's install size is surprisingly light (full post)
Xbox One's unlocked 7th core isn't that much of a boost, says dev
Xbox One owners have speculated for quite some time that certain features could dramatically improve the console's everyday performance, being led to believe that things like DirectX 12, Windows 10 implementation and giving developers access to the system's seventh core could change everything. With the help of Microsoft, one dev team has tapped the Xbox One's seventh core and reveals that the performance gains are anything but dramatic.
"Yes, we are using [the seventh core]," Larian Studios' co-founder and CEO Swen Vincke said in an interview with Gamingbolt. "Not a lot [of benefits] apparently but we are using it. You can only use 60 or 70% of it so that is not big of a difference. Essentially it won't make much of an impact."
Right now Larian Studios is working on a PS4 and Xbox One console port of the cRPG Divinity: Original Sin, and during the dev cycle Larian has spent a lot of time getting intimately acquainted with current-gen console architecture. The bump in processing speed granted by the Xbox One's seventh core didn't seem to help very much, despite the speculation that the extra core could be responsible for some Xbox One games hitting PS4-level performance.
Continue reading: Xbox One's unlocked 7th core isn't that much of a boost, says dev (full post)
Sony probably won't make another PS Vita handheld
In an age where free to play mobile games dominate the handheld gaming space, Sony is extremely reticent to release another PlayStation Vita handheld. At EGX 2015, Sony exec Shuhei Yoshida said that the current mobile climate "isn't healthy" for a new PS Vita because the Japanese gaming titan would have a hard time finding a foothold in the competitiv emarket.
"That's a tough question," Yoshida said when asked outright if Sony is considerating a new PS Vita handheld. "People have mobile phones and it's so easy to play games on smartphones. Nany games on smartphones are free, or free to start. So I hope, like many of you, that this culture of playing portable games continues but the climate is not healthy for now because of the huge dominance of mobile gaming."
Although the PlayStation Vita is a big part of Sony's next-gen PS4 ecosystem, with Remote Play letting gamers stream PS4 games right to the handheld, sales for the Vita have flagged in all markets except for Japan. This is largely due to Sony's favoritism for their native homeland, with Japan seeing a steady influx of quality games and content that just don't come overseas. This lack of focus has made many PlayStation Vita owners feel abandoned throughout the years.
Continue reading: Sony probably won't make another PS Vita handheld (full post)
YouTube Red to be the ad-free, subscription model launching on Oct 22
According to a report from Recode, Google is preparing for the launch of 'YouTube Red', the company's ad-free, subscription-based model for YouTube that has been in the pipeline for quite a while now.
Recode is reporting that numerous emails were sent out to channel owners, asking them to agree to a new set of terms and conditions by October 22nd or their monetized videos would be switched to private until the new agreement had been agreed upon. We don't know if the subscription-based YouTube Red will launch on that day, but it should be within hours of that.
The ad-free YouTube Red will launch in the US at first, after which it will float across the pond once Google begins sorting out the various legal issues associated with rights management. As for pricing, we can expect a decent price of $9.99 per month, something that will include Play Music Unlimited. As someone who shifted over from Spotify to Play Music Unlimited, I'm hoping my existing subscription will include YouTube Red.
Continue reading: YouTube Red to be the ad-free, subscription model launching on Oct 22 (full post)
The first Oculus Rift will cost 'at least $300'
We've been hearing all about the Oculus Rift, the Oculus Touch controllers, some aweosme looking games like the Unreal Engine 4-powered 'Bullet Train' from Epic Games, and more. But now, we're beginning to hear more cemented details on pricing.
Oculus co-founder and VP of Product, Nate Mitchell, during a talk with PC Gamer said: "What I think about all day long is user experience, right? So if I'm going to promise you something and you're going to hand me a significant amount of money or whatever it is-we all know it's going to be at least $300-if you're going to hand me $300 today, I am not going to be excited to tell you: 'OK, in nine, 10, 12, 11 months, whatever it is, you're going to get something in return.' The longer you wait, the more you're like, 'This is obnoxious'".
We've heard previously that the Rift would launch with a $300-ish price, but now as we get closer to the official Q1 2016 launch, the $300 price is nice to hear. If you need a new PC and wanted to secure yourself an Oculus-ready PC, you can spend less than $1000 to prepare yourselves, plus the $300 for the Rift itself when it launches early next year.
Continue reading: The first Oculus Rift will cost 'at least $300' (full post)
Oculus has no problems with VR porn on the Oculus Rift
It looks like porn is about to go next-gen, with the Oculus Rift to be released next year, we're finding out about VR porn. According to Oculus' VP of Product, Nate Mitchell, porn will be something Oculus won't have on their own store and apps, but it won't be banned from the platform itself.
Mitchell told Polygon: "We're actively barring, prohibiting adult entertainment content from being in the store, period. If you're on the Oculus platform, there's none of that content. We have a zero tolerance policy for that". So while Oculus won't be accepting VR porn on their Rift headset, the Facebook-owned company won't stop other people and developers from creating and selling porn-focused VR content on their own sites or storefronts.
"The Rift's hardware SDK is open," Mitchell continued. "But as for content that we're offering to people, and anything that's on what we would consider to be on the Oculus platform, we don't offer, we prohibit it".
Continue reading: Oculus has no problems with VR porn on the Oculus Rift (full post)
Halo 5 takes up a whopping 13% of Xbox One's total HDD
The install size for Halo 5: Guardians has been spotted, and if you're an avid Xbox one gamer you might want to shell out for an external HDD or delete some games to make space.
Halo 5 will take up 46.19 GB of the Xbox One's memory, making it the console's eighth largest game to date. This means that Halo 5 will take approximately 12.7% of the Xbox One's 500GB hard-drive, which actually only has 362GB available. The lack of storage space is one of the major frustrations in this current generation of gaming, and as time goes by, it'll only get worse and worse.
If that wasn't enough, 343 Industries will likely roll out a day one patch to soak up even more gigabytes, so we might be looking at a 50GB+ install size just like the ill-fated Master Chief Collection. Gamers are already having to swap and re-install and download games in order to maintain space, and both Sony and Microsoft have attempted to put a band aid on the storage limitations with their respective 1TB PlayStation 4's and limited edition 1TB Halo 5 Xbox One, but they're just delaying the inevitable.
Continue reading: Halo 5 takes up a whopping 13% of Xbox One's total HDD (full post)
Retro console Indiegogo campaign is asking for $1.95m of funding
Yes, you read that right. RETRO VGS is a retro console vying for your Kickstarter backing and it's asking for a hefty $1,950,000 from users in total, made up mostly of $299 - $499 donation packages which earn you different levels of console goodness.
The main selling point of this console seems to be the cartridges themselves. Pandering to a retro and collectible audience, the Kickstarter bio talks about how cartridges are great for buying and trading, centering also around the constantly-felt issue of release-day patches and other issues felt by many gamers who are playing on newer consoles or computers. Striving to do away with patches all together, RETRO VGS tells games that all compatible titles "are tested thoroughly before release, just like they used to be."
While also promising to never release a DLC, it just doesn't seem quite right that a never-before-seen retro console is going to be able to drum up almost $2 million in funding over a 45 day period. In saying this, almost $66,000 has already been raised in five days, so maybe this will gain some more traction in coming weeks. However, at a rate of $66,000 every five days, a successful outcome is looking bleak.
Continue reading: Retro console Indiegogo campaign is asking for $1.95m of funding (full post)
Halo devs already working on Halo 6, has roadmap for next 10 years
With about a month away from Halo 5's release, 343 Industries has already begun plotting out the next Halo game while fleshing out key details for the next ten years of the franchise's future.
"We do kind of know what's going to happen in the next game pretty well at this point," ex-Bungie alum and 343 exec Frank O'Connor said in an upcoming GoldenJoysticks presentation. "We're doing serious real planning and even some writing on the next game already, and that's a luxury - we've never been in that position before. So we both know at a very high level what's going to happen in, say, ten years from now. But at that very granular level knowing what's going to happen in the next game and that's just been a great feeling for me".
It's worth mentioning that proper development hasn't been initiated, and this is the early planning phase to continue the long-running Reclaimer Saga following Halo 5: Guardians. Even still it would behoove 343i to take caution and not jump the gun too quickly: we've seen what happens when too much is attempted too fast with the catastrophic Master Chief Collection, which is still missing key pieces even today. We can only guess what MCC would be like if 343i hadn't been focusing a huge portion of its assets on Halo 5.
Continue reading: Halo devs already working on Halo 6, has roadmap for next 10 years (full post)
Black Ops 3 has no campaign on PS3, Xbox 360
Activison has confirmed that last-gen versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will be missing half of the game upon release, and will only ship with multiplayer. That's right, PS3 and Xbox 360 flavors won't have a campaign.
"The Black Ops 3 PS3 and Xbox 360 versions will feature Multiplayer and Zombies gameplay only, not Campaign," reads the official statement. "The ambitious scope of the 1-4 player coop Campaign design of the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions could not be faithfully recreated on old generation hardware."
But why would Activision cut out such a huge portion of the game? Hasn't Treyarch been responsible for a number of Call of Duty games on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3? Interestingly enough Treyarch is only developing the current-gen versions of Black Ops 3. Instead of having the industry vets handle these ports, Activision hired a Beenox and Mercenary Technology to port to X360/PS3. So now things are making sense, and once again Activision has let an inexperienced dev team handle something important, and they dropped the ball (kind of like Sledgehammer did with Advanced Warfare's singleplayer).
Continue reading: Black Ops 3 has no campaign on PS3, Xbox 360 (full post)
iPhone 6S teardown reveals slimmer battery and heftier display
With today's release of the iPhone 6S, iFixit has just completed their thorough analysis of the phone's innards, completely exposing what makes the handheld tick. Their findings confirm and assess the entirety of the iPhone 6S' touted features and reveal some key changes in the new model, including a smaller capacity battery, a heavier display, and a new, bigger SoC with the A9 chip.
One of the first obvious changes in the iPhone 6S teardown was the smaller battery, which is now 1715 mAh compared to the beefier 1810 mAh that powers last year's iPhone 6. Even with this reduction Apple has affirmed the battery life will remain the same. It appears the battery size was cut down a bit to make room for the phone's Tactic Engine, which is fastened below the battery.
In order to maintain the new pressure-sensitive 3D Touch capability, the iPhone 6S has received a boost in capacitive sensors making the display weigh in at 60 grams total. That's 15 grams over the iPhone 6's display, and the same weight as the iPhone 6 Plus' 5.5" display. Other changes in the new Retina HD display include a slight reduction in cables and LCD plate design, but all in all the 3D Touch display seems "pretty visually similar" to past displays.
Continue reading: iPhone 6S teardown reveals slimmer battery and heftier display (full post)






