Latest News - Page 268

Sony and Bandai Namco have announced a new partnership that will usher in a new level of co-created content aimed at anime and manga fans.

According to the press release, Sony will acquire 16 million Bandai Namco shares valued at 68 billion yen, or $464 million USD, which brings Sony's shareholder percentage of Bandai Namco shares up to 2.5% of the total. Bandai Namco Holdings Executive Vice President Nobuhiko Momoi stated in the release the new partnership aims to combine Bandai Namco IP with the technological capabilities of Sony across various entertainment fields.

Sony Group Corporation Chief Strategy Officer Toshimoto Mitomo added, the partnership will create an array of new content offerings that will encompass Bandai Namco's connection with its fans both domestically and internationally, with Sony's strengths in marketing and distribution areas. More specifically, the partnership will be expanding on the anime and manga markets that are rapidly expanding, along with experiential entertainment.

Samsung was approached by NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang in 2018 to enter into a long-term collaboration, but the Korean tech giant turned Huang down in what might be one of its most regrettable decisions in recent memory.

A new report by Korean media has revealed that Samsung turned down an offer by Huang for a long-term collaboration on joint HBM development, which included a partnership with the foundry business and work on the CUDA ecosystem together. Fast forward to today, Samsung's semiconductor and HBM businesses aren't looking very healthy at all, with reports saying that both are operating at a loss and are unable to maintain healthy yields or pick up on market trends.

The report states that NVIDIA had the forward-thinking to know that HBM development was going to be integral for the future and approached Samsung to be its supplier due to how prominent the company is in the DRAM and NAND chip spaces.

Battlefield 6 has received its official reveal trailer, confirming that the title will not be available on previous generation consoles, but will be exclusive to current generation and PC.

It has been confirmed that Battlefield 2049 is the last Battlefield title to release on the previous generation consoles, and that Battlefield 6 will be arriving exclusively on current-gen consoles, along with PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Wishlists for the title were released alongside the official reveal trailer, which can be seen above. As part of the official reveal trailer, Battlefield Labs has teased a "multiplayer reveal" scheduled to take place on July 31, where presumably we will get an official multiplayer trailer for Battlefield 6.

Apple has announced a new option that consumers can take to get umbrella AppleCare coverage for multiple devices.

It's called AppleCare One and for a fee of $19.99 monthly, subscribers can have three Apple gadgets covered. If you want more than three pieces of hardware protected, you can elect to pay $5.99 per month for each extra device.

From today, you can sign up for AppleCare One on your Mac, iPhone or iPad, or get the plan from an Apple Store. It doesn't matter what devices you enroll in the scheme, the cost is the same.

Not so long ago, GPUs made in China were something of a spectacle, boasting performance levels that meant they weren't taken seriously - but some serious progress has seemingly been made with the Lisuan G100.

As you may recall, just a month ago, the Lisuan G100's performance couldn't match the NVIDIA GTX 660 Ti, but now the board is apparently faster than the RTX 4060, and not too far off the RTX 5060.

That's based on a reported Geekbench OpenCL run (as flagged by Benchleaks, add your own salt) where the still-unreleased G100 scored 111,290 points (being run in conjunction with a Ryzen 5 7600 processor).

Battlefield Labs has just released the official trailer for Battlefield 6, showcasing heated destruction in various environments, missiles, weapons, and a story where the US has been attacked by a mercenary group called Pax Armata.

The trailer was published on the official Battlefield YouTube channel and pulled more than 100,000 people who watched it premiere live. All of the footage seen in the trailer isn't gameplay; it is captured in-engine. The short 2-minute trailer ends with Battlefield Labs teasing the release of a multiplayer reveal on July 31, which is undoubtedly what the majority of players are most excited to see.

This most recent official reveal trailer showed a lot of footage from what appears to be the single-player campaign, and while that is most welcome, the multiplayer is what most gamers want to check out, as that is where the majority of their time will be spent. The "multiplayer reveal" is scheduled to go live on July 31, which is rumored to be followed by the release of an Open Beta.

Battlefield Studios has just released the official reveal trailer for Battlefield 6, showcasing an incredible display of action-packed gun cinematics.

The highly anticipated Battlefield 6 Official reveal trailer has just premiered, attracting more than 100,000 viewers who watched it go live. The trailer begins with the US president giving a speech about an unprovoked attack against the United States, which includes a warning for the rest of the world about a group known as Pax Armata.

The US president says, "It's over" to the Pax Armata mercenaries that are listening to his speech, and then the trailer gets into what looks like the US military gearing up for a guns blazing, missile launching, bloody fight.

NVIDIA may be about to release a new spin on its GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card, going by the latest from the GPU grapevine.

This theoretical launch is the NVIDIA RTX 3050 A, and the hint that it's inbound is the fact that it has just been listed in GPU-Z, which has a new release out (version 2.67.0).

This isn't the first time we've heard about the RTX 3050 A, as rumors were circulating last year (when the GPU was spotted in the PCI ID repository). As Tom's Hardware, which picked up on this, observes, back at the time, NVIDIA confirmed the graphics card and said it was built with an AD106 chip rather than GA107.

Elon Musk has announced xAI will be resurrecting the popular short-form video app Vine, but there will be a big catch - it will be in AI form.

Musk took to his personal X account to announce the news, with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO writing, "We're bringing back Vine, but in AI form." Currently, it remains unclear what Musk exactly means by "AI form" as no further context was provided.

For those who don't know, Vine was an extremely popular short-form video-sharing app that played a pivotal role in internet culture. Users would upload 6-second looping videos that were easily shareable. The platform gave rise to many celebrities who are prominent on social media platforms today, such as Logan Paul, Shawn Mendes, David Dobrik, and others.

The Velvet Sundown is a band that is gaining intense popularity with the release of the song "Dust On the Wind," which is a track from the band's debut album, Floating on Echoes, which was published on Spotify on June 5.

Floating on Echoes has since exploded in popularity, with Dust On the Wind being streamed more than two million times on the platform, and the other songs on the album being streamed hundreds of thousands of times.

Listeners were surprised to see that Velvet Sundown, a band that includes singer Gabe Farrow, guitarist Lennie West, keyboardist Milo Rains, and drummer Orion "Rio" Del Mar, was able to release a second album on June 20, called Dust And Silence. An unusually fast turnaround time for even an extremely adept band, let alone an up-and-comer.

The rise of artificial intelligence-powered chatbots such as ChatGPT, while technologically impressive and undoubtedly useful in various situations, is also creating problems that appear to be mounting.

It wasn't too long ago that a ChatGPT user proposed to the AI-powered software after they confessed their love to it. ChatGPT accepted, and the partner of the individual who proposed was shocked at the relationship dynamic between the individual and ChatGPT.

Now, ChatGPT has confessed to contributing to episodes of mania developed in a 30-year-old man on the autism spectrum that had no previous diagnoses of mental illness. Jacob Irwin was hospitalized twice in May for manic episodes after he asked ChatGPT to find flaws in his theory on faster-than-light travel.

One of the key parts in Samsung returning to competitiveness in the HBM market lies with its new 1c DRAM, which will be an integral part of its next-gen HBM4 memory ready to fight SK hynix and Micron in the AI battle of 2026 with HBM4.

In a new report from TheElec picked up by insider @Jukanrosleve on X, we're hearing that Samsung has delayed its 12-stack HBM4 memory based on its new 1c DRAM until 2026. Samsung had originally aimed for mass production in the second half of this year, but it is being more cautious with its HBM4 rollout, setting a new target for Production Readiness Approval (PRA) in Q4 2025.

Samsung redesigned its 1c DRAM process, with performance improvements and yields that have reportedly reached 65%, with a source familiar with the matter adding: "the company has internally set the goal for HBM4 12-stack PRA in Q4. This means mass production is now targeting next year, not this year. Based on small-scale sample tests conducted at the R&D fab, the 1c DRAM yield recorded 65%, which is a hopeful situation.

For those who grew up playing games in the 1990s, you'll no doubt have memories of seeing real-world objects like keyboards, displays, and other hardware rendered with limited polygons and textures that look blurry up close. So yeah, gaming on a keyboard that looks like it's been plucked from Valve's Half-Life or the original Deus Ex is a pretty fun concept.

The new Higround Basecamp 75+ is a custom gaming keyboard featuring this distinctive design. The keycaps feature blurry text to give them a look reminiscent of old-school PC and console games from the 1990s. Higround's "unconventional design" is a "tribute to PS1-era motion and texture," which means the Blur keycaps are intended to look like textures that are still loading.

Priced at $159.95 USD, the keyboard's unique retro-gaming inspired look is complemented by the company's new responsive HG Blitz switches, which feature a "rail-guided stem" for a smoother and more stable response. It also features five dampening layers, including Polyfoam and Silicone as part of its 'Dampening Plus' design.

Samsung expects to ship 2.4 million units of its flagship Galaxy Z Fold 7 and 2.3 million units of the Galaxy Z Flip 7 this year.

In a new report from TheElec, the total foldable smartphone production plan for Samsung was recently shared with its component partners for 2025 is 6.1 million units, the same goal for foldable production in 2024. The production plan model includes 2.4 million units of the Galaxy Z Fold 7, 2.3 million units of the Galaxy Z Flip 7, 700,000 units of the Galaxy Z Flip 7 SE, 100,000 units of its upcoming tri-fold phone, and 600,000 units of its legacy foldables.

Samsung has experienced double-digit global pre-orders for its new Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 foldables compared to the same period as last year, which is promising for the foldable phone leader.

Amazon found great success with its Fallout adaptation, and its next major live-action video game-to-TV series will be based on BioWare's iconic sci-fi RPG series Mass Effect. Late last year, we got confirmation that Fast & Furious 9 screenwriter Daniel Casey was on board, with Star Trek Beyond writer Doug Jung serving as showrunner.

At the time, Daniel Casey stated that "we have a great pilot script and series outline," with a fully staffed writers' room and production set to kick off this year. The production team is set to include Scott Farris, a senior executive at Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video, who is on board to help "guide the development and production" of the Mass Effect adaptation.

Scott Farris's credits include Fallout, which his LinkedIn page describes as Amazon's "most commercially successful series to date" that also earned 16 Emmy nominations. Although details on the plot, cast, and setting remain under wraps, it sounds like Amazon is treating its next big-budget sci-fi video game adaptation like the next potential Fallout-style breakout hit.

Samsung has just launched its new Galaxy Z Fold 7 with a more premium build and thinner design with a newly-designed titanium backplate, but rumor has it that its next-gen Galaxy Z Fold 8 will ditch it.

The new Galaxy Z Fold 7 has a premium OLED panel and hinge that Samsung has recently tested, reporting that it can handle over 100 folds per day for 10 years, thanks to its titanium backplate. Samsung's next-gen foldable smartphone should be cheaper, with the next-gen Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumored to ditch the hinge and cut costs.

New rumors suggest that Samsung would use a carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) backplate instead of the titanium backplate, with The Elec reporting that the new titanium backplate is harder to source than CFRP ones, and that the trade war between the US and China has had an effect on the supply chain for companies like Samsung, making it harder to acquire the titanium for its backplate.

NVIDIA is ramping to the launch of its new GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 graphics card in China, with the new flagship Blackwell gaming GPU hitting China on August 12.

In new reports from Expreview and Benchlife, we're hearing that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 is coming to China and that AIB partners have been notified about the launch date as August 12. The new RTX 5090 D V2 will replace the RTX 5090 D as the latest gaming GPU from NVIDIA that is compliant under US export restrictions to China, and the third gaming graphics card tweaked for after the RTX 4090 D.

NVIDIA's new tweaked-for-China RTX 5090 D V2 uses the GB202-240 die versus the GB202-250 die on the RTX 5090 D, and the GB202-300 die used on the standard RTX 5090. The new RTX 5090 D V2 uses a newer PCB design -- the PG145 SKU 40 -- with changes made to the VRAM and GPU layout.

The ASUS ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 D graphics card has a 600W TDP, but with the XOC BIOS, it pumps that up for professional overclockers and enthusiasts to an insane 2001W, which has been leaked.

The leaked XOC BIOS for the ROG Astral RTX 5090 D is available on TechPowerUp but remember it's not official or verified, but if you use it on the card you've got a huge 2001W power limit at your hands. The new XOC BIOS is compatible with the China-aimed ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090 D Gaming OC, supplying 2001W of power through its single 16-pin power connector.

GALAX has its own high-end RTX 5090 D HOF graphics card which has its own leaked XOC BIOS that unlocks the same 2001W power limit, with the card and its 2100W of power flow breaking the world record on 3DMark Port Royal recently. GALAX's custom RTX 5090 D HOF card has a 2610MHz boost clock out of the box, but in the hands of overclocker Team OGS, pushed a huge 3.6G5Hz boost clock (nearly 1000MHz more than stock) under LN2 cooling.

Doom creator John Romero shares words of optimism for the future of the games industry, and game development at large.

On the surface level, the video games industry seems tumultuous right now. Companies are laying off people by the hundreds, shutting down game studios, and canceling projects. On the tech side, AI could erase some jobs altogether. But it's not all bad, and the reality is that gaming is bigger than it's ever been before--gaming is expected to earn $189 billion this year.

That's the sentiment that immortal FPS legend John Romero offers game developers new and young. In a recent interview with the Deep Dive series, Romero says it's never been easier to make and release games, highlighting the opportunities that are available now. But you still have to make a good game because the competition is much fiercer in the modern arena.

Ubisoft management explains that a prepaid card exploit is one of the reasons for its recent Q1 earnings miss.

Ubisoft's latest Q1'FY26 results missed internal estimates, with net bookings down year-over-year despite the triumphant product launch of Rainbow Six Siege X. While the new Siege X is off to a great start, with KPIs like MAUs and player acquisition up across the board, Ubisoft says the reason for the net bookings miss is due to fraudulent charges.

"While resolved in June, player spending this quarter saw a significant impact from a pricing exploit with prepaid currency cards that temporarily inflated virtual currency wallets," Ubisoft said in a press release. Essentially, Siege X was so popular that it attracted digital fraudsters.