Latest News - Page 325

A new Star Wars game will be announced next month by Respawn Entertainment and Bit Reactor, according to recent reports.

The reveal has been set for a stage appearance by both Respawn and Bit Reactor on April 19 at the Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo, Japan. Currently, there isn't much known about the upcoming title besides it being a Star Wars -turn-based strategy game, and that it's being developed through a production collaboration with Bit Reactor, a studio that formed by veteran developers of the popular turn-based franchises XCOM and Civilization studio Firaxis Games. Respawn will be producing the title, while Bit Reactor will lead its development.

If turn-based titles aren't for you, and you are a Star Wars fan, don't worry, as this isn't the only Star Wars title currently in the works, as Respawn is working on a sequel to the Star Wars Jedi franchise. This sequel was announced in May 2022 under the title Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and last year, while publisher EA announced 700 layoffs across its company, EA Entertainment president Laura Miele stated that Respawn will be focussing its efforts on creating the upcoming title, along with providing support for Apex Legends.

Valve's Counter-Strike 2 is undoubtedly growing in popularity as the first-person shooter (FPS) has once again shattered the all-time high player peak record, according to the charts.

The latest figures sourced from SteamDB indicate Counter-Strike 2 has smashed through its previous record of 1.72 million players with a new figure of 1,824,989. Notably, this isn't the highest all-time peak player count for Steam since records started, as that title is still held by PUBG: Battlegrounds, and its 3,257,248 players.

PUBG is followed by Black Myth: Wukong with 2.4 million and then Palworld at 2.1 million. Counter-Strike 2 is currently sitting in fourth place with 1.82 million, and at the time of writing this, it currently has 1.6 million concurrent players, which is a little more than double PUBG's concurrent player count at 760,000.

The God of War franchise is about to turn 20-years old and in celebration of one of the most popular PlayStation franchises a new DLC is being released for God of War Ragnarok.

The first God of War game was released in 2005, and since then the franchise has gone through some major changes, with the most prominent being in 2018 when the game was rebooted. Notably, Santa Monica Studio game director Cory Barlog explained during the Raising Kratos behind the scenes that the chopping of the tree at the start of God of War 2018 was symbolic of the old franchise coming to an end and a new one beginning. Boy, was that a good decision, as God of War 2018 went on to win Game of the Year and breathe new life into the franchise.

The follow-up title released in 2022, God of War Ragnarok, while it didn't win Game of the Year, was still met with praise by fans, and won Best Narrative, Best Action/Adventure, losing Game of the Year to Elden Ring. Now, in celebration of how far the God of War franchise has come, PlayStation has announced a new DLC for Ragnarok - the Dark Odyssey Collection. The new DLC will be released on March 20 and will be free for all players that own a copy of God of War Ragnarok.

Recent speculation suggests that The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Remake is coming - and fast. Rumors point to a possible April announcement and launch - an almost unheard of move in the games industry. While leaks hint at its legitimacy, there's another compelling reason to believe in a surprise launch: Todd Howard has wanted to do this for years.

At E3 2015, Howard took the stage to reveal Fallout 4. Not only did Bethesda showcase over 30 minutes of gameplay footage (a rarity for a launch announcement), but the real shocker was the release window - with the game being made available just four months later. This strategy went against the industry norm, where big-budget titles typically endure drawn-out marketing cycles spanning years.

As fans of Grand Theft Auto and The Elder Scrolls would know, the wait for new entries is often agonizing. Worse, when games finally do launch, they can be riddled with bugs, optimization issues, and cut content. But Fallout 4 proved that a shorter marketing cycle could work - and Howard has taken note.

Valve is rumored to release its SteamOS onto the desktop PC at any moment, seeing PC gamers freed from Windows and its bloatware, with SteamOS "almost here" according to a new post on X.

X user @SadlyItsBradley posted that SteamOS is "almost here" but made further comments that he "didn't make the image I posted above. it's the official generic splash screen for SteamOS general release (non-Steam Deck devices). Kathiel Rayna replied, saying"please tell me this isn't copium and indeed a public official SteamOS is gonna be a thing soon!"

@SadlyItsBradley replied, saying: "not copium. Valve pushed a ton of commits to prepare for SteamOS general public release".

Intel just announced its new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, which was a big deal for the company... but another (more silent) milestone was reached: its new 18A process node wafers being tested at its Arizona fab in a major milestone for Made in America semiconductors.

In a hidden post on LinkedIn but shared on X, we see Pankaj Marria, an engineering manager at Intel, saying: "Exciting milestone for Intel 18A! Proud to be part of the Eagle Team, leading the way in bringing Intel 18A technology to life! Our team was at the forefront of running the initial lots rights here in Arizona, marking a key step in advancing cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing".

He continued: "This achievement is a testament to the hard work, innovation, and dedication of everyone involved. The Eagle has landed, and this is just the beginning! Developed and Made in America the world's smallest node".

McDonald's has been ordered to pay $800,000 in damages after serving "unreasonably" hot chicken nuggets to a four-year-old daughter.

The case dates back to 2019 and states a family visited a McDonald's in Tamarac, Florida, where their then four-year-old daughter was served "unreasonably" hot Chicken McNuggets, resulting in the daughter being burned. According to the mother of the child, a Happy Meal was purchased for herself and the daughter, and after collecting the meals at the drive-thru, she handed one of the meals to her daughter. Shortly after the handover, a chicken nugget became stuck in the child's car seat and burned the daughter's leg, resulting in second-degree burns.

In May 2023, a jury found McDonald's and the franchise owners were at fault for the incident, resulting in the jury being responsible for deciding how much in damages the family was owed. The family was requesting $15 million in damages and instead was granted $800,000 by the jury. Despite receiving much less than what she asked for, the mother of the child, Philana Holmes, said she was more than pleased with the outcome as she had "no expectations".

NVIDIA is hosting its GPU Technology Conference (GTC) event next week, where we'll be introduced to its beefed-up GB300 "Blackwell Ultra" AI GPUs, new details on its next-gen Rubin R100 AI GPU which will feature next-gen HBM4 memory, new CPO technology, and more.

JP Morgan's outlook for NVIDIA GTC 2025 has Blackwell Ultra GB300 as the highlight of the show, with the new GB300 AI chip featuring a logic structure similar to B200 but with huge capacity increases on HBM and massive increases in power consumption.

NVIDIA's new GB300 Blackwell Ultra AI GPU will have up to 288GB of 12-Hi HBM3E memory, and a thermal design power (TDP) that has been increased up to 1.4kW. We are to expect a major performance boost from GB300 of up to 50% faster than GB200 in FP4 computing performance, and JP Morgan expects GB300 to start shipping in Q3 2025.

NBC has secured the rights to broadcast the Olympics until 2036 after huge ratings were generated with the Paris Olympics.

Comcast NBCUniversal has announced a $3 billion deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to keep the Olympics on NBC and Peakcock until at least 2036, following a huge success with last summer's Paris Olympics that secured more advertisers than the 2016 Rio Games, and the 2020 Tokyo Games - combined.

According to NBC, digital ad revenue from the Paris Games doubled the ad revenue generated by Tokyo and was even so successful that it set a new record high for NBCUniversal. The newly inked deal secures the broadcasting and streaming rights for the 2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, along with the 2036 Summer Olympics, and is an extension of NBC's current contract with the IOC that states NBC maintains the Olympics rights until 2032, which the games are scheduled to take place in Brisbane, Australia.

Nintendo is going to fully unveil the Nintendo Switch 2 on April 2, where we can expect to get an official price for the highly anticipated console, along with a list of features.

Ahead of the official unveiling analysts have predicted the price tag Nintendo will be slapping on the upcoming console, with a new report from Bloomberg stating gamers should expect nothing below $400, which is $100 more than the original Nintendo Switch, which launched for $299. Tokyo-based analyst Serkan Toto spoke to Bloomberg and said regardless of the price Nintendo sets for the Switch 2 "boatloads" of units will be sold.

Additionally, the analyst said Nintendo has a "great software lineup for year one," as the new console will be paired with a new Mario Kart and a new 3D Mario, both of which haven't seen a new release in eight years. This can be translated to Mario Kario 9 and Super Mario Odyssey 2. Furthermore, Nintendo will be releasing Pokemon Legends: Z-A and Metroid Prime 4 on the Switch 2, adding even more software value to the upcoming console. The analyst also pointed out there is going to be big third-party support from day one, with blockbuster titles such as Call of Duty.

A California-based startup has demonstrated quantum computational supremacy on a useful problem, marking a first-of-its-kind achievement within the industry.

The achievement was detailed in a new peer-reviewed study published in the journal Science. The study explains how D-Wave, the California-based startup, has made a scientific breakthrough by solving a problem beyond the reach of classic computers. D-Wave's annealing quantum computer outperformed one of the world's most powerful classical supercomputers in solving complex materials simulation problems. The study validates this achievement as "the world's first and only demonstration of quantum computational supremacy on a useful problem."

How was it done? The annealing quantum computer utilized the power of quantum mechanics to find a solution to the problem in 20 minutes and with just 12 kilowatts of energy. By comparison, for the same problem to be solved by a traditional GPU-cluster-powered supercomputer, it would require more than the world's annual energy consumption and more than a million years of time.

Ubisoft is reportedly planning to launch a new business that will be owned by multiple entities and designed to manage the company's biggest IPs, such as Assassin's Creed.

The situation at Ubisoft couldn't be more of a crisis, as it was only a few days ago the company was accused of withholding information from shareholders that sparked protests to be planned outside its Paris HQ, and now a new Bloomberg report has claimed Ubisoft is considering spawning a new entity with its minority stakeholder Tencent to manage several of its biggest IPs.

According to the report, the new business would manage IPs such as Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six, and FarCry, with Bloomberg writing that if the business came to fruition, it would likely be worth more than Ubisoft itself. This report comes after reported discussions between Ubisoft and Tencent about taking Ubisoft private, but one of the main hitches of those discussions was Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family wanting to remain in control of the company despite a significant investment by Tencent. It seems this new idea would be a workaround for both parties.

It's not often you see a massive graphics card partner exit from the GPU market, with the last big exit in recent memory being EVGA in 2022. Now MSI can be added to that list, but just for Radeon RX 9000 series graphics cards.

In a recent statement to Tom's Hardware, MSI has confirmed it will not be manufacturing any graphics card based on AMD's RDNA 4 architecture, which means the company will be skipping out on the entire line-up of RX 9000-series graphics cards.

The partnership between MSI and AMD isn't completely dissolved, as the company will keep the door open for future collaborations, but nothing will be manufactured for this current generation. For comparison, MSI manufactured 45 models of AMD's RDNA 2 generation or the RX 6000-series graphics card. As for the RDNA 3, or the RX 7000-series, MSI only made four models, which equates to a massive reduction of 91% between the two aforementioned generations.

PlayStation has taken to its YouTube channel to share a new trailer for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, with the focus being on the Collector's Edition fans will be able to purchase.

Death Stranding 2: One the Beach recently received its pre-order trailer at SXSW, with legendary game director Hideo Kojima presenting the 10-minute trailer on stage. The trailer showcased quite a lot of what players can expect from the upcoming title, and at the end of the video, players can see the various editions of the game that can be purchased. The Collectors Edition is by far the highlight of the selection, so much so that it has now received its own dedicated trailer, giving a closer look at each of the items that come with it.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Collector's Edition comes with a full game digital download in the form of a code, the Collector's Box, 48-hour early access to On the Beach, art cards, a 15-inch Magellan Man Statue, and a letter from Hideo Kojima. Additionally, the Collector's Edition comes with various in-game items, all of which are listed down below.

Sony has expanded its cloud gaming support for the PlayStation Portal, with its latest update adding a large lineup of PSP and PS1 games to its cloud gaming catalog.

Prior to this, players were only able to access these titles through a PS5 console, whether that be through conventional play, or through the PS Portal using remote play. Now, gamers will be able to play the new catalog on the PS Portal entirely from the cloud - effectively cutting the consoles out of the equation.

The additions include almost the entire line-up of PS1 titles on PS Plus, including the original Twisted Metal series, Ape Escape, and Tekken 2. Players can jump into over 30 PSP titles, including Killzone Liberation, Everybody's Golf, and MediEvil Resurrection.

Apple's failure to roll out Apple Intelligence on time is reminiscent of Antennagate, a controversy Apple founder Steve Jobs tackled in 2010 with the iPhone 4. Perhaps current Apple CEO Tim Cook should take a page out of Jobs' book on how to manage a company crisis effectively.

For those who don't know, Apple announced Apple Intelligence at WWDC in June 2024, with the company going on to tell consumers its implementation of AI would be coming to its latest generation of products. Apple showed Apple Intelligence working in a variety of different ways through advertisements (some now hidden) that showed new ways to interact with its AI that would benefit the user. Unfortunately, the most impressive features of Apple Intelligence, such as Siri's deep iOS integration upgrade, would bring it up to a similar level of performance as other AI services, such as ChatGPT.

However, those features are yet to be released, and now we have learned Apple is so far behind in development that Apple Intelligence won't arrive in its entirety until sometime next year. The problem? Apple marketed its latest generation of devices with the promise of Apple Intelligence features, and while some have been released, the biggest sellers, such as the Siri upgrade, are not present, nor will they be until the iPhone 17 lineup has already been launched. To many, this seems like a bait-and-switch tactic, or perhaps more accurately, Apple overpromising on features and then severely underdelivering.

Personal stories about Zuckerberg have reached a new crescendo, after ex-Facebook director Sarah Wynn-Williams released her new book Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism. The book is an expose detailing her time working at the company between 2011 and 2017.

The book makes some relatively scathing claims. Meta has condemned its release, calling it 'out of date' and filled with 'false accusations' about its executives. Meta spokesperson Erin Logan told SFGate that the book was 'defamatory', alleging that Wynn-Williams had skipped fact-checking processes conventionally associated with book publishing.

Wynn-Williams' includes anecdotes on stories that are already public. For example, the accusations that Zuckerberg lied during a 2018 senate hearing, and his alleged efforts to work with the Chinese Communist Party to get his app unblocked.

On a recent episode of the Xbox Podcast, Microsoft shared some of its plans regarding Copilot AI and the expansion of the Play Anywhere initiative. However, they also shed light on the fast-moving growth of cloud gaming in the Xbox ecosystem.

Microsoft's Vice President of Xbox Gaming devices and Ecosystem, Jason Ronald, highlighted that cloud gaming continues to grow exponentially.

President Trump recently announced that TSMC would be investing a further $100 billion into US semiconductor manufacturing, but it is leaving Taiwanese officials with a sour taste in their mouths as this sounds and feels like a technology transfer.

In a new report from UDN, we're learning that TSMC's new investment of another $100 billion into the US chipmaking industry has Taiwanese officials concerned it would lose its global dominance on the semiconductor industry, and that the US would take that position over.

TSMC has however assured Taiwan that its expansion into the US won't downgrade the country's importance on the semiconductor supply chain, and that its core technologies will remain in Taiwan. TSMC Taiwan has a massive R&D team on home soil, with its cutting-edge process node production only taking place at its Taiwan-based fabs, with other nations like the US making previous-gen chips.

We all know Apple is working on a foldable iPhone, but what we don't know right now is what will the company call it. In a new interview, Bloomberg insider Mark Gurman said he thinks it will be called the iPhone Ultra.

Apple calling its new iPhone Ultra makes sense when you think that the company has its Apple Watch series of smartwatches, with the flagship model called the Apple Watch Ultra.

We've also got the M series processors that Apple designs in-house and fabs at TSMC, with its flagship chips also using the Ultra monitor: M3 Ultra was just released inside of the Mac Studio for example.