New Nintendo NX controller photos spotted, match previous leaks

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Mar 24, 2016 7:35 AM CDT

A second batch of leaked Nintendo NX controller photographs have been spotted, adding more credence to the NX having bizarre oval-shaped buttonless controllers.

New Nintendo NX controller photos spotted, match previous leaks

Two new leaked Nintendo NX controller photos have made the rounds on Reddit, offering even more evidence of the console's strange interface design. The new photos perfectly match the initial leaks to a tee, showing a new perspective of hardware we've seen before. If genuine, the design has alienated a core base of Nintendo fans who are up in arms over the design, which has led to plummeting hype.

Game Informer's Andy McNamara delivered a statement on Twitter regarding the NX controller leaks, saying that he had "heard that the NX wouldn't have face buttons, so the leaked pictures match what I was told but was unable to confirm." A Redditor made note of the features revealed in the photo, matching the features we've seen in the first photo leak:

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Sony to try PlayStation gaming on mobile again with ForwardWorks

Jeff Williams | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Mar 24, 2016 7:03 AM CDT

Sony isn't finished restructuring their PlayStation brand it seems. The latest move by the Japanese company has formed a new division that's sole focus is to bring back PlayStation-esque gaming to the mobile space.

The idea, it seems, is to be able to provide full-fledged console-type gaming with complex character interactions and an overarching narrative to mobile phones, tablets and any other mobile or connected devices. The wording even suggests making another app to act as a hub for those experiences. It also suggests that this will be, again, limited to their own devices. It looks like they're ready to re-enter this arena again, and with a whole new strategy.

Of course this is well after the actual PlayStation mobile app, which contained targeted and optimized games and was available only on certain Sony handheld devices, has been shut down. This seems to be another effort to expand past the PlayStation Vita and into a broad mobile strategy, something that Nintendo has opted to do as well. One would hope that they would extend the compatibility to include more than just Sony branded devices, maybe even having soft requirements to play certain games to ensure that the best experience is had. It's likely that they've re-evaluated their stance after reviewing the popularity of even the Kim Kardashian game and other segments.

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Fallout 4's Far Harbor DLC is bigger than Shivering Isles

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Mar 24, 2016 6:32 AM CDT

Bethesda's Pete Hines reveals that Fallout 4's upcoming Far Harbor DLC will eclipse Oblivion's rather massive Shivering Isles add-on in size and scope.

Fallout 4's Far Harbor DLC is bigger than Shivering Isles

"Far Harbor is bigger in size that Shivering Isles. I asked," Pete Hines said in a recent Tweet. We're not sure if Hines is talking about the DLC's landmass or the overall length, but considering Shivering Isles adds in over 30 hours of playtime, Far Harbor could be pretty substantial.

The $25 Far Harbor DLC is the third announced add-on pack for Fallout 4, and is expected to release in May. Based on the official description (check below), the DLC looks promising, and we'll likely see a huge array of new items, quests, characters and companions to keep things fresh. By that time, the official Fallout 4 creation kit will be out, so modders will have some pretty awesome creations available.

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Pebble slays 25% of its workforce, as money is 'pretty tight'

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Mar 24, 2016 5:16 AM CDT

Pebble isn't having a good time right now, with the indie smartwatch maker having issues - so much so that Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky told Tech Insider it is cutting 25% of its workforce - or 40 people, this week.

The company has said that money is "pretty tight" right now, with the tap slowly being tightened by Silicon Valley venture capitalists. The company has raised $26 million over the last eight months, but the cash isn't flowing quick enough. Migiovsky reiterated that Pebble is here for the long-term, and they have an idea of where wearable technology is headed in the coming 5-10 years.

By early 2015, Pebble had sold over 1 million smartwatches, the month before the company launched its new Time watches - and just before the big Watch unveiling by Apple. Pebble has to convince both consumers and potential investors that it can not only survive in a now much more crowded smartwatch market, but beat the likes of Apple at its own game.

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Pornhub offers free VR porn, becomes the first adult site to do so

Pornhub has just become the first adult entertainment service to offer free VR porn, which will work on all of the Oculus Rift and Samsung GearVR headsets.

The company has just reiterated how important VR is to the future of adult entertainment, partnering with adult VR entertainment company BaDoinkVR. Pornhub has now become the first to offer 360-degreer adult content, and best of all - it's free!

Pornhub VP Corey Price said it was the company's duty to give their audience the latest in cutting edge technology, with VR the next step in that path. Better yet, Pornhub is giving away 10,000 smartphone-powered Google Cardboard-style headsets to anyone who wants one - and we all know they're going to be gone by the time you read this.

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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided engine is a heavily modified Glacier 2 engine

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 23, 2016 9:37 PM CDT

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is set to become one of the biggest games of 2016, and during this year's Game Developers Conference, some details were revealed on the graphics engine powering it; the Dawn Engine.

It was revealed that Mankind Divided will be using a heavily modified version of IO Interactive's Glacier 2 engine, with global illumination that will use hundreds of thousands of lighting probes, and much more. Here's what to expect from Deus Ex: Mankind Divided:

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Access the Windows desktop within SteamVR, you'll never have to leave

The SteamVR platform is mighty innovative as of late, answering questions that no one has quite asked yet, but doing so in a constructive and fun way. You can now access your desktop inside VR within the SteamVR interface, letting you play with your desktop in front of your face.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to use gesture control to swipe, grab and otherwise interact with it. You can, however, use the Vive controllers to navigate it, but it's unclear whether that's just via the buttons, or motion. But it's a step in a direction that could end up being quite interesting. The idea behind it is that you may sometimes need to interact with your desktop to change settings, check a tip or do anything else when you don't want to take the headset off. In other words, you can now become completely sucked in.

To access it you need to opt into the Steam beta as well as SteamVR. If you have, just use the overlay and press the system button on the Vive controller, and you'll see a tab that lets you switch to a view of the desktop.

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Xbox One backwards compatibility gets Dark Souls OG and Tekken Tag 2

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Mar 23, 2016 5:59 PM CDT

Microsoft is making great headway when it comes to adding more games to their list of those that are backwards compatible with the Xbox One. The newest two games to join the fun are Dark Souls and Tekken Tag Tournament 2, no surprise given that Bandai Namco did say that they were working diligently to bring their original creation to Microsoft's newest console.

Dark Souls comes just in time for the promotional offer that Bandai Namco is running, where if you purchase Dark Souls III, you'll receive a download code for the original for free. That original is now completely playable, and should be just as smooth and good looking as the original.

The new games join an already large list of Xbox 360 titles that are currently playable on the Xbox One. You can either use the physical disc, or the buy and download them directly from the new Xbox Store that's been pushed to everyone with the new update that released earlier today. Unfortunately, we still don't see any signs of having Red Dead Redemption officially a part of the growing list of games, despite it leaking accidentally earlier last month.

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Quantum Break graphics options leaked

Sean Ridgeley | Gaming | Mar 23, 2016 4:42 PM CDT

The graphics options for Remedy's Quantum Break have appeared in the wild and while not official, they appear legitimate.

The list is long, including many different lighting and shadow options, as well as the ability to disable the HUD. 4K is supported as promised: you can see the resolution is set at 3840x2160. Notably missing: FOV, V-Sync, and anti-aliasing. No V-Sync makes sense as the game will only support 30FPS; 4x MSAA is being utilized in the console version, so possibly this is automatically implemented in the PC version, or AA options simply aren't implemented yet (just yesterday Remedy stated there was a lot of work to be done on the PC version still). That leaves just FOV unaccounted for. A key option in recent years, FOV has become a staple gamers appreciate greatly, particularly the sensitive types who get headaches from low FOV. Hopefully, it's like AA and is simply yet to be added.

We've contacted Remedy for confirmation that these screenshots are legitimate as well as to the potential inclusion of AA and FOV options and will update this story if we hear back.

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Red Hat now first multi-billion dollar open-source company

Sean Ridgeley | Business, Financial & Legal | Mar 23, 2016 2:25 PM CDT

There's a lot more money to be made from Linux and open-source software than you probably realized: Red Hat just became the first open-source company to make $2 billion. This isn't the first time it's set a record, either: four years ago it became the first Linux company to make $1 billion. All this without relying on venture capitalists, no less.

Red Hat president and CEO Jim Whitehurst says "enterprises increasingly adopting hybrid cloud infrastructures and open source technologies" are largely responsible for the big numbers. In hard terms, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and cloud operating system RHEL are doing better than ever subscription-wise.

The company expects to make between $2.38 and $2.42 billion in the 2016 fiscal year; if this keeps up, they'll set another record in short order.

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