Latest News - Page 392

Avowed game director Carrie Patel says that Obsidian wants to delve further into the Pillars of Eternity universe, potentially indicating at new content for Avowed or maybe even a follow-up.

Xbox's latest first-party Avowed game looks to be a hit among RPG fans, and Obsidian apparently still has a lot of stories to tell in their unique high fantasy universe. The game's branching paths and choice-driven narrative offers a very Dragon Age-level opportunity for Obsidian to preserve some sort of continuity in between expansions or games.j

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Avowed game director Carrie Patel expressed interest in staying in the world for a bit:

Avowed was released on February 18, and since then, the game has peaked at just shy of 20,000 concurrent players on Steam and, at the time of reporting, has approximately 11,000 players.

The latest release from Obsidian Entertainment has had a mixed response from gamers, with the Steam listing for the title landing on 78%, earning it the label "Mostly Positive," but a much lower percentage of 64% on the Xbox Store listing (3.2/5). Looking at Metacritic the game has received a lower score than past Obisidian Game releases with an 80 from critics and a 6.6/10 user score.

Notably, Metacritic doesn't require a user to have purchased the game to leave a rating, which may somewhat skew the ratings, especially when considering Avowed has been at the center of the gaming industry's recent controversy for the inclusion of "woke" aspects within the gameplay.

With the current GeForce RTX 50 Series stock shortages and difficulty finding cards at close to retail prices, ASUS is starting a new ROG Elite Rewards loyalty program that will give its members the opportunity to purchase a GeForce RTX 50 Series GPU at retail price directly from the source.

ASUS started this program in response to scalpers and bots driving up graphics card prices in recent weeks. The goal is to ensure that PC gamers and creators have the chance - and priority access - to obtain a powerful GeForce RTX 50 Series GPU. With the limited availability of GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs, this is a fantastic move from ASUS.

"No scalping, no inflated prices, just a fair shot at cutting-edge performance," ASUS tells us. ROG Elite Rewards members, a free program you can sign up for, will enter a drawing, and those selected will be given the option to buy a GeForce RTX 50 Series card directly from ASUS.

A recently discovered asteroid sparked fears after measurements gave it a low chance of colliding with Earth in 2032. NASA has now updated the probability, with the space agency finally reaching a conclusion after conducting multiple measurements.

The asteroid in question is named 2024 YR4, and it was initially discovered last year on Christmas Day, with astronomers predicting the space rock, which measures anywhere between 130 and 300 feet wide, has a 1.3% chance of colliding with Earth in 2032. After manual follow-up observations were conducted, the probability was increased to 2.3%, and then to 3.1% after even more follow-up observations.

Notably, if 2024 YR4 were to collide with Earth, it would release 500 times more energy than the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War 2, making it more than capable of wiping out an entire city.

As reported by @CharlieIntel, Activision has confirmed that Call of Duty games include AI-generated content after a content disclosure recently appeared on the game's Steam page. The disclosure broadly outlines that the team uses generative AI tools to develop in-game assets.

Call of Duty has been the subject of accusations in the past for using AI to generate assets like skins, loading screens, and calling cards without disclosing it to the public. Fingers in AI-generated artwork are often a giveaway for AI use, and examples like the 6-fingered zombie in Black Ops 6 demonstrate this case in point.

Back in April 2024, it was also discovered through Treyarch job listings that the team was seeking 2D artists specifically "skilled with generative AI tools." Given the team's public openness to using the technology, it's no surprise that this disclaimer was coming eventually. Steam, in particular, has strict AI transparency requirements, and Comicbook.com speculates that Valve may have stepped in to enforce the policy.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is scheduled to release on March 20, but some gameplay has leaked showcasing various aspects of the title, and Ubisoft has responded with a statement.

Early copies of Assassin's Creed Shadows are being streamed online,e revealing spoilers for the game in social media posts that are quickly being taken down. Above and below are some GIFs of the gameplay, so view them with caution if you are attempting to dodge spoilers. Ubisoft has officially recognized the gameplay leaks in a recent post on X, where the company wrote, "We are aware players have accessed Assassin's Creed Shadows ahead of its official release," and that any footage seen online isn't representative of the final launch experience players will get on March 20.

With that out of the way, what do leaks show? Unfortunately for Ubisoft, quite a lot. Players have leaked the inventory of the game showcasing a range of items, gear, and weapons. Other leaks show consumables, tools, and character stats for both Naoe and Yasuke, the game's two protagonists. Moreover, one video has revealed the size of the map, the different regions, and many points of interest, with another video showing off some skill trees for various abilities. Lastly, one video showcases some combat, with Noae taking out several enemies with combos and fatalities.

NetEase is cutting ties with risky investments as its realigns its business strategies, leading to some surprising layoffs and closures. Not all of NetEase's investments will be affected by the move, however.

Blood of Dawnwalker, a new dark fantasy game from former Witcher 3 devs, hasn't been jeopardized by NetEase's cuts. It turns out that NetEase is only a minority shareholder in Rebel Wolves, the team that's making Blood of Dawnwalker.

In a recent LinkedIn post, studio co-owner Tomasz Tinc clarifies that Blood of Dawnwalker's production budget has already been paid for.

Microsoft's new generative AI tech could be compatible with user-generated content and pave the way to a new kind of customized gaming experience.

A bit ago, Microsoft made waves by announcing Muse, a generative AI gaming world model that essentially creates procedural gameplay from user inputs. Microsoft also said that it will start using its first-party games to train Muse, but devs can opt out if they choose.

There's still a lot of unknowns about Muse's practical applications, at least in the sense how a gamer could utilize it. In a recent interview with Dwarkesh Patel, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella suggests that content created with Muse could mesh well with user-created mods, and as someone who grew up playing Bethesda games on PC, this immediately piqued my interest.

Lost Soul Aside has had its PC system requirements released, where you'll need an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti graphics card to run the game on its Ultra Ray Tracing graphics preset.

In the PC system requirements now on Steam, Lost Soul Aside will need 16GB and 80GB of SSD at a bare minimum with the CPU requirement for the Minimum preset falling into the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i5-10400 processors. On the GPU side, you'll need at a minimum, the GeForce GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 5500 XT.

The recommended PC system requirements require the same CPU at a minimum, but the GPU requirements increase up to the GeForce RTX 2060 or Radeon RX 5700 XT, while the High preset ups the CPU requirements to the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 X or Intel Core i7-11700, while the GPU requirements are far higher: GeForce RTX 3070 or Radeon RX 6800 XT.

Ubisoft has officially confirmed that the Assassin's Creed Shadows leaks are indeed happening, and warns players to avoid any footage or details about the game.

French games-maker Ubisoft just can't catch a break. Assassin's Creed Shadows has been mired in controversy and suffered a delay outside of the critical holiday season. Now copies of the game have apparently gone out ahead of its March release and a bunch of key info and details have been leaked.

Ubisoft has responded on social channels with a statement that essentially says any footage isn't finalized--meaning the actual game won't exactly look or play like the gameplay shown in any leaks.

Apple's huge new Houston, USA factory will start making AI servers powered by its next-gen in-house M5 processor after news hit that the company would be spending over $500 billion in the United States over the next 4 years.

In a new post on X by industry insider Ming-Chi Kuo, we're learning that Apple's new Houston factory will begin making AI servers for Apple Intelligence Private Cloud Compute (PCC) in 2026. In previous Apple M5 predictions, Kuo said: "Apple's PCC infrastructure build-out will accelerate after the mass production of the high-end M5 chips".

Apple will reportedly kick off mass production of its high-end M5 chip in 2H 2026, which aligns perfectly with Apple's timeline for expanding its AI server capacity.

NVIDIA is reportedly engaging in "scarcity marketing" of its new GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, which is why the new Blackwell gaming cards are hard to find worldwide... sigh.

In a new post from industry insider @Jukanlosreve on X we're learning that the real reason that NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs are hard to find and pretty much out of stock worldwide is because the company is engaging in "scaracity marketing".

GPU inventory is "completely sufficient" but NVIDIA is reportedly controlling the supply and not releasing GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs -- right now the RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070 Ti have been released -- which is "thereby creating the impression of shortage". However, we're to expect that by April or May that GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs will be released in "large quantities".

Samsung is poised to release a "double-folding" foldable smartphone alongside its new Galaxy Z Fold 7 family of smartphones, with the company securing parts for its new double-folding foldable phone in April 2025.

In a new post from ETNews, the outlet is reporting from multiple industry sources that "the double-folding multi-fold phone is being developed and produced simultaneously with the Z series. It seems that they will be released at the same time". Samsung has the Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip foldable smartphones, the former folds left and right, the latter folds up and down... but the new double-folding foldable will change that up radically.

Samsung's new double-folding foldable smartphone will introduce a nifty multi-fold functionality that will move from the single-fold use of the Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip foldables, which will further differentiate their foldable smartphones. Huawei has a tri-fold foldable smartphone, and Samsung Display is providing new foldable OLED panels for Apple's future foldable iPhone expected to drop in 2H 2026.

Apple is reportedly finalizing its selection of material and component suppliers for its foldable iPhone by April 2025, with fresh rumors that we'll see the foldable iPhone debut in the second half of 2026.

In a new report from ETNews, we're learning from industry insiders said "Apple has been preparing for a foldable phone and is now in the final stages of narrowing down candidates before making its final sections". The report suggest that the production timeline for the foldable iPhone is close, with full-scale material and component mass production expected to start in 2H 2025.

Apple normally finalizes technical specifications and supplier selections one year before launching a new product, and that based on this timeline, we should expect to see Apple's first-ever foldable iPhone expected to launch in the second half in 2026. The foldable iPhone is expected to use an inward-folding (in-folding), book-type design with Samsung Display supplying the foldable OLED panels, one of the key components of the foldable iPhone.

Grand Theft Auto 6 drops later this year, with a store in Malaysia is up for pre-order at a store in Malaysia.

Rockstar Games haven't unleashed pre-orders for GTA 6 just yet, but Gamers Hideout in Malaysia has a pre-order option for Grand Theft Auto 6 on their website, as well as gamers having the ability of walking into their stores and putting down a deposit on what will eventually be the biggest game of all time.

We even have some gamers noticing that the store has fake boxes of GTA 6 on their shelves, with gamers pre-ordering the game with a deposit of RM14.90 (which works out to around $3 USD or so). If you live in Malaysia and want to be one of the first in the country to secure a copy of GTA 6... well, now you know where to go.

Intel recently announced that its 18A process node was "finally ready" and that chips made on the new node would tape-out in 2H 2025... but fresh rumors say there are major issues and that delays are coming.

In a new post on X, industry insider Ming-Chi Kuo said that the first Panther Lake engineering samples (ES) made on Intel Foundry's new 18A process node are being tested by major PC ODM/ESM makers, and that in an early 2025 industry survey from Kuo, Intel 18A yields are below 20-30%.

Kuo noted that the Intel 18A process node yields sitting at 20-30% "doesn't bode well for Intel's goal of hitting mass production" in 2H 2025, and that on top of the technology challenges, Intel Foundry Services (IFS) faces a "big obstacle" in winning outside orders due to its organizational setup, supply chain management, and culture"and that's where TSMC"totally stands out".

We've just been treated to another hint that the incoming RX 9070 XT from AMD is going to be a seriously powerful graphics card.

This new leak comes from VideoCardz, which used its sources to get hold of what are purportedly some official benchmarks from an AMD press briefing.

The eyebrow-raising takeaway here is that if they're genuine, the leaked benchmarks - which are real-world gaming tests, thankfully - show the 9070 XT is some 42% faster than the RX 7900 GRE at 4K (Ultra) resolution.

NVIDIA has given us an update on the issue with black screens that has been plaguing a number of folks who've purchased a new Blackwell GPU.

These black screen bug check crashes have been happening on RTX 5090 and 5080 graphics cards since the launch of these GPUs a while back.

NVIDIA said it was going to investigate this bug when reports of problems first emerged earlier this month, and an admin over at NVIDIA's GeForce forums has just provided an update, stating:

A former Nintendo of America sales worker guesses that the Switch 2 could be out sometime in June.

The Switch 2 console is coming in 2025, but Nintendo has yet to announce a release date for the system. One former Nintendo employee has an idea that the Switch successor could release mid-June.

The logic is that Nintendo could capture the excitement of an entire summer season and rack up sales when school is out. Retailers could also add pack-in accessories to drive up sales throughout the months leading to the holidays.

Insider Jeff Grubb has predicted a God of War remaster will be announced next month in celebration of the series anniversary.

This isn't the first time we have heard rumblings of a God of War remaster, as it was only recently Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson responded to previous rumors by saying he was hearing the new God of War game takes Kratos back to Greece, and not to Egypt, which is what previous rumors were indicating. Henderson said this information wasn't concrete and that he wasn't sure if the setting of Greece would imply a remaster of an earlier God of War title, or a franchise reboot.

Now, Grubb has hinted that the God of War remaster announcement will be close to the 20th anniversary of the God of War franchise, which is March 22. The 20th anniversary marks the release of the first game back in 2005, and considering the importance the God of War franchise is to Sony, it's certainly possible we will see some form of celebration in one way or another.