Latest News - Page 2696

A game that has come out of nowhere but should be on your radar is Studio Wildcard's upcoming ARK: Survival Evolved, which is a multiplayer first-person survival game coming to Steam Early Access next month, and then onward to the PS4 and Xbox One in 2016.

ARK: Survival Evolved will be running a heavily modified version of Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4, with fully dynamic lighting and global illumination, dynamic weather systems that include rain, fog, snow and more, as well as true-to-life volumetric cloud simulation. Better yet, it will also be compatible with DirectX 12 when Microsoft launches Windows 10 later this year.

Not only will ARK: Survival Evolved be powered by the delicious Unreal Engine 4, and compatible with DX12, but it will also support VR headsets like the Oculus Rift, and Sony's Project Morpheus. There are also Mac and Linux versions being worked on, which will be announced at a later date.

During Nintendo's earnings report, the Japanese gaming giant revealed the overall Wii U sales figures, as well as updating its best-selling games list for its current generation console.

The company sold 3.38 million Wii U consoles during its last fiscal year, with the Wii U racking up a total of 9.54 million consoles as of March 31. If we compare this to its Japanese rival in Sony, which has shipped 22.3 million PlayStation 4 consoles. But when it comes to games, we finally find out which games Nintendo has been doing well on, with Mario Kart 8 being absolutely no surprise at all.

With 9.54 million Wii U consoles in the wild, Mario Kart 8 has sold 5.11 million units, meaning that over 50% of Wii U owners have purchased Mario Kart 8 which is quite big for Nintendo. New Super Mario Bros. U comes in second with 4.81 million units, while Nintendo Land comes in third with 4.68 million sales.

With manufacturers continuing to push 4K displays into the marketplace and streaming services such as YouTube and Netflix offering streaming content in UltraHD resolutions, the once mighty Blu-ray disc specification has begun to seem... well, a little old. But today, the Blu-ray Disc Association has finalised the spec for the next gen Blu-ray format. Welcome 'UltraHD Blu-ray'.

According to the BDA's press release as published by TheDigitalBits, the UltraHD Blu-ray spec will encode content in 3840x2160 resolution, but will include improvements such "significantly expanded color range and allows for the delivery of high dynamic range (HDR) and high frame rate content" along with making it easier to share content between devices with the "optional digital bridge feature, the specification enhances the value of content ownership by embracing the notion that a content purchase can enable the consumer to view their content across the range of in-home and mobile devices".

Importantly, UltraHD Blu-ray players will also be compatible with current gen Blu-ray disc and presumably DVD. It's expected that the first consumer UltraHD Blu-ray players will make their way to market early next year.

It looks like Warner Music Group, which confirmed it makes more revenue based on streaming music than digital downloads, has learned how important Spotify, Pandora, and other streaming services can be. The company noted a 33 percent increase in streaming income, and warned other labels not to shut the door on free, ad-supported streaming models that are currently offered to music listeners.

"The rate of this growth has made it abundantly clear to us that in years to come, streaming will be the way that most people enjoy music," said Stephen Cooper, CEO of Warner Music, during a recent company earnings call. "Not only that, we are also confident that streaming's ongoing expansion will return the industry to sustainable, long-term growth."

Even though Cooper also added that ad-based and subscription-based services are "better than piracy," that isn't likely any solace in the news - the music industry has created absolutely insane business agreements that Pandora, Spotify, and other services were forced to adopt. Apple is preparing to launch Beats Music, pending record label support, though it won't even have a free membership available.

Verizon is purchasing AOL for $4.4 billion, valued at $50 per share, according to both companies early Tuesday morning. It's the latest strategic push by Verizon, as the company looks to expand its Internet of Things (IoT) offerings - and could benefit from AOL's digital and video experience.

AOL, which was the dial-up ISP king in the 1990s, has generated millions in digital advertising revenue, while supporting major media brands such as Engadget, TechCrunch, and The Huffington Post. Verizon is preparing a mobile video service this summer, and could call upon AOL's advertising platforms.

"AOL has once again become a digital trailblazer, and we are excited at the prospect of charting a new course together in the digitally connected world," said Lowell McAdam, chairman and CEO of Verizon, in a public statement.

Apple Pay wasn't the first mobile payment offering, but it certainly is the most high-profile solution for shoppers in the United States. It shouldn't be a surprise to hear that Apple Pay is in front of competitors, helping draw attention to the budding mobile payments market.

The Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), a coalition supported by Walmart, CVS, and Target, hopes its CurrentC mobile payment solution can compete with Apple Pay. The company has not been able to successfully launch its payments app, though a "mid-sized market" is scheduled for sometime this summer.

"MCX has had another one of those really bad weeks," said Jordan McKee, analyst at the Yankee Group, in a statement published by TIME. "If they don't get something in the market soon, they're going to get passed by, plain and simple."

We've been reporting on the larger iPad Plus from Apple for a while now, but the latest rumor on the iPad Plus is that Apple has requested silver nanowire material samples from various display suppliers.

Panels that use nanowire material are more flexible than the usual touch panels, which could allow Apple to provide similar Force Touch technology found on the Apple Watch, to their upcoming business-focused iPad Plus. Not only that, but it looks like Apple is thinking about providing a stylus on the new iPad Plus, which would pit the larger iPad against the likes of Samsung's various Galaxy tablets.

The iPad Plus is expected to feature sapphire glass over the entire display, NFC connectivity, a USB Type-C connector, an 11,000mAh battery and much more. We should expect Apple to reveal the iPad Plus later this year.

Update #2: And it's back up! Your day can go on like usual, we can breathe normally again now that Reddit is back!

Update: According to @redditstatus on Twitter, there was some scheduled maintenance for four hours ago, with a tweet that said: "We'll be performing some database maintenance that will require the site to be in read only mode for May 11, 22:00 - 22:30 PDT". The next tweet which was from around 52 minutes ago read: "Investigating: We're investigating a database master that's gone unavailable". Then, just 38 minutes ago, @redditstatus tweeted: "Identified: Turns out it was good we were preparing to replace a database tonight -- it's the one that just fai...".

Breaking: Reddit, otherwise known as "the front page of the Internet" is down. Visiting the website will result in a nice little blue page that says "Reddit is down for emergency maintenance".

It was expected of Nintendo to talk about its next generation console at E3 2015 next month, but the company has confirmed that it will not be talking about its "NX" console at the show.

But, Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata said that the Japanese company will be talking about its NX console sometime in 2016. The Nintendo boss teased that they are calling it a new concept, with the team not considering the NX console a replacement of the Wii U. At this point, there's no clue what Nintendo could be working on, but if it's anything like the Wii, we could expect a big change to the game console.

The new NX console will also reportedly not be held back by region locking, as the company has been listening to customer feedback and proposals from the market.

Both of the current generation consoles have 8GB of RAM, which "should be plenty for the remainder of this console generation" according to ex-Naughty Dog developer and founder of Filmic Worlds, John Hable.

During a recent interview with GamingBolt, Hable said: "In general, I would not worry about the consoles becoming outdated. Remember, the PS3 and Xbox 360 have only 512MB of RAM, but the PC versions of the same games usually require 2GB or more. On consoles you have more control over memory allocations. The 8GB of RAM in both the Xbox One and PS4 should be plenty for the remainder of this console generation".

When Hable was still with Naughty Dog, he was in control of the HDR lighting technology found in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Current generation games are now using much more complicated lighting technologies such as global illumination and physical-based rendering, so GamingBolt wanted to know where Hable thought lighting technology in games would be going next.

It's been an exciting few months for 'X-Files' fans, with the prospect of new adventures featuring FBI agents Mulder and Scully transforming from a dream to a reality. Now, Fox have announced their television lineup for 2016 - which includes a solid date for the show's return.

The six part, limited series starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, will premiere on the Fox network on January 24th 2016, with a "special two-night event" spilling over to the next night. The remaining four episodes have not been dated, but would presumably follow weekly from that point. No further details on the series plot were divulged, but is understood to mirror the original series, which featured a mix of alien mythology and 'monster of the week' episodes.

According to YVRShoots, filming will begin on June 9th and continue through to August in downtown Vancouver.

Google self-driving vehicles have had 11 minor traffic accidents during six years of testing, but the vehicle and human passenger were not at fault. Following reports that the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has received accident reports from three Google-equipped Lexus SUVs since September 2014.

Most reported accidents were caused by another vehicle rear-ending the Google autonomous test car, according to Google.

"Not only are we developing a good understanding of minor accident rates on suburban streets, we've also identified patterns of driver behavior (lane drifting, red-light running) that are leading indicators of significant collisions," said Chris Urmson, director of the self-driving car program at Google, in a blog post. "Those behaviors don't ever show up in official statistics, but they create dangerous situations for everyone around them."

It looks like 3D printers are one step closer to widespread mainstream adoption, with 90 percent of respondents from companies saying they are "very satisfied" with their 3D printing experience, according to IDC.

Price, ease of use and service/support are critical to help drive adoption among business users, the survey found. In addition, non-users have a curiosity with 3D printing, and momentum will continue to build even further in the future.

"These printers are typically acquired for a specific creation workflow, but once in place the usage expands rapidly to other types of applications," said Keith Kmetz, VP of hardcopy peripherals solutions and services at IDC. "The early adopters who recognized the substantial cost and time-to-market benefits of 3D printing have carried the day, but it's their overall satisfaction and the ability to expand usage that will ultimately drive 3D printing to the next level."

We have gotten used to some flagship smartphones on the market rocking an 8-core processor, but Qualcomm will be kicking things up a notch or two with their upcoming Snapdragon 818 processor.

The Snapdragon 818 processor will be the first 10-core chipset, with four low-power Cortex-A53 cores at 1.2GHz, two mid-power Cortex-A53 cores at 1.6GHz and four more high-power Cortex-A72 cores rocking along at 2GHz. All of this will be baked onto the 20nm process, include LPDDR4 support and LTE-A Cat10 support, too.

We should expect to see some smartphones with this processor in the future, but for now, nothing is confirmed just yet so we'll have to wait to get off this rumor train for now, and jump onto the next ride. For now, what do you think about the world of 10-core smartphones? It will be coming sooner than you think.

When Tesla unveiled its new Powerwall home battery, I don't think most people thought it would take off as fast as it has. According to Bloomberg, Tesla has received over $800 million in orders for the Powerwall and Powerpack batteries so far.

The site says that Tesla has received around $179 million worth of Powerwall reservations so far, with $625 million worth of Powerpack reservations to boot. Tesla has already said that it's taken in around 38,000 total reservations for Powerwall, and 2,500 reservations for Powerpack.

Tesla is selling the Powerwall for $3000 and $3500 for the 7kWh and 10kWh models, respectively. Powerpack units make even more money for Tesla, as they're being sold to businesses and utilities for power storage for $250 per kilowatt hour to use.

After hearing the rumors for Call of Duty: Black Ops III for what felt like months, it was made official last month with a release date of later this year. With three studios now developing games within the Call of Duty franchise, there must be a lot of brainpower going around.

Last year, Sledgehammer Games developed Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, but this year the torch goes to Treyarch Studios for Black Ops III. Treyarch has come out and said that they communicate with the two other studios that develop Call of Duty games, with Mark Lamia from Treyarch talking with the Official PlayStation Magazine, saying: "From very early on we'll share stuff on all sides".

He continued: "I invited the other teams very early on in this development, as soon as I had what I considered a representative prototype. I shared it with the other studios, but it's up to them to come up with their own [creative ideas]". Lamia continued: "It was interesting to see that they had maybe some movements like ours, but the systems and focus they had was different from ours. I think that's important inside the franchise to have some differentiation for the players so that they can get a different experience every year".

With Project CARS now finally out, comparisons are being made between the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC versions of Slightly Mad Studios' very ambitious driving game.

The comparison we've embedded above is between the PS4 and PC versions of Project CARS, with both versions running at 1080p 60FPS. For the most part there's not much of a difference between the two, with some impressive performance coming out of the AMD APU-powered PS4. But, if you pause the video at any time, there's some very serious motion blur happening on the PS4 version of the game.

At 2:40 into the video, mountains completely disappear on the PS4 version of the game for some reason, which I'm sure is performance-related. As for the PC version, it was running on High texture resolution with AA on High, FXAA disabled, and most other settings on Ultra. Motion blur was set to High, with grass, particle levels and intensity set on Ultra.

Back in February, we wrote a story about NVIDIA reiterating that TSMC was its 'very important' foundry partner as it heads into the world of 16nm manufacturing.

Well, NVIDIA is back to reiterate once more that it still loves TSMC, and that it's working with the Taiwanese manufacturer on not just 16nm technology, but 10nm. Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA's CEO and co-founder said: "We are constantly evaluating foundry suppliers, ... [but] we largely purchase from TSMC, the vast majority of our wafers we buy from TSMC. We are in 20nm, we are expecting to ramp 16nm. We are deeply engaged with TSMC for many, many nodes to come, including 10nm".

This could be happening as Samsung is kicking ass with its 14nm FinFET production, but with the current legal battles between NVIDIA and Samsung, could NVIDIA be deflating the rumor balloon that it will ditch, or at least shift some production over from TSMC to Samsung in the near future? NVIDIA has added that it's not "too obsessed about the process technology", which is an interesting statement from a company that pushes the boundaries of GPU technology with each successive release.

Battlefield: Hardline is out and while most of the servers are empty, Battlefield 4 is still DICE's most-played first-person shooter. Well, the developer has said that all future DLC for Battlefield 4 will be free, and not just for Premium users, but for everybody.

DICE's David Sirland has confirmed that all future content for Battlefield 4 will be free, which includes the upcoming new maps and the new Gunmaster game mode and new weapons. With a Spring patch on its way, something that will bring on the new Gunmaster game mode, five new weapons, and more, this is great news for Battlefield 4 players.

Later in the year, DICE will release a new community map which only recently entered production. Not only that, but the developer has an unannounced map remake from a previous Battlefield game that is being worked on right now, something we should hear about in the near future.

We might be enjoying a time of total NVIDIA dominance in the VGA market with the GeForce GTX 960, GTX 970, GTX 980 and Titan X giving gamers everything they wanted, and more, but the future of GPUs is nearly upon us.

AMD is ready to launch its new Radeon R9 390X which will arrive with HBM1 technology, but NVIDIA is beginning to talk about their Pascal architecture, which should arrive sometime in 2016 as the PK100 and PK104 GPUs. Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA's CEO and co-founder, said during their latest financial report that the Pascal-based GeForce products will be arriving with HBM2, which should increase the available memory bandwidth from the ~300GB/sec or so right up to a huge 1.2TB/sec.

We have reported that AMD's next, next-gen Radeon R9 490X would use HBM2 with over 1TB/sec memory bandwidth, too. NVIDIA should be tapping some of that sweet 14nm FinFET technology by then, so the future GeForce cards will be radically smaller, cooler and insanely fast. NVIDIA is only starting to tease them now, with Huang saying: "I cannot wait to tell you about the products that we have in the pipeline. There are more engineers at NVIDIA building the future of GPUs than just about anywhere else in the world. We are singularly focused on visual computing, as you guys know".