Latest News - Page 414

Windows 11 users who couldn't install the 24H2 update due to the bug with Auto HDR can get ready to finally pull the trigger on the upgrade.

That's because Microsoft has implemented a fix in the preview (optional) update for January 2025 (KB5050094).

Time for a quick recap on this one, for those who've forgotten: the Auto HDR bug emerged in December 2024, and for people using the feature (with an HDR monitor, of course), it was something of a nightmare. First off, it completely messed up the color palette in games, and secondly, it could also cause those games to freeze or even outright crash.

If everything is an Xbox, why buy an actual Xbox console? Microsoft hopes that the system's functionalities and capabilities will be the selling point.

The base Gen 9 consoles are very similar: Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X have the same chipsets and deliver similar performance. What sets them apart is their feature sets--the Xbox Series X/S, for example, has Quick Resume, whereas the PS5 has features like ultra-fast loading via its SSD technology.

This is really how Microsoft wants you to think about Xbox hardware, to judge Xbox consoles on the merit of their capabilities based on your play style. That means a more enthusiast box would be capable of targeting 4K 60FPS, a cheaper box 1440p 60FPS (and maybe even a handheld at 720p 30-60FPS), but more importantly, it means Xbox being able to set itself apart from the competition with its own features.

Multiversus is shutting down on May 30, 2025, WB Games has confirmed.

Season 5 will be the last big update for Multiversus, the failed online game that combined classic DC and Hanna-Barbera characters in a beat-em-up setting. WB had hoped to capitalize on Nintendo's popular Smash Bros. with their own free-to-play crossover game. Multiversus proved to be an expensive misfire for the games division.

With today's announcement, the studio has turned off all in-game purchases within Multiversus. That means no one can spend real money to buy in-game currency. Multiversus will still be playable offline, though, and you'll still have everything you've unlocked. Gamers also have until server shutdown on May 30 to spend any Gleamium they may have left.

NVIDIA's RTX 5070 Ti is getting support in the HWiNFO utility, but there's a possibly telling omission here.

While the RTX 5070 Ti is mentioned in a fresh update (hat tip to VideoCardz) that details the upcoming changes with the app, the RTX 5070 isn't, at least suggesting that it's not as close to hand as the faster Ti version of these mid-range GPUs. (Also, it's worth noting that the RTX 5090 D version of the Blackwell flagship for China is down here as covered for support, too).

Officially, NVIDIA has not said when these two flavors of the RTX 5070 will be launched, beyond informing us that the GPUs will debut in February.

Xbox has been steadfast in its approach to bringing Xbox games to as many platforms as possible, and now, building upon the rumors of Xbox-exclusive titles coming to PlayStation, we have a new rumor that claims the Nintendo Switch 2 will also be a target platform for Xbox games.

It was only yesterday that Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer alluded to many games coming to Nintendo's new platform, with Spencer saying in a recent interview that Xbox is "really looking forward to supporting them with the games that we have." Previous rumors suggested Xbox was working on a selection of new titles to bring over to PlayStation, with leaks pointing to Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Gears of War: Ultimate Edition coming to Sony's platform and the Nintendo Switch.

Now, Spanish publication Vandal has claimed it has obtained information from unknown sources that some of the "closest" Xbox titles coming to PS5 "are Killer Instinct and Starfield." The publication also claims that both of the aforementioned titles have been in development for the PS5 "since its launch on Xbox Series and PC - late 2023." These aren't the only titles purportedly currently in development to make the transition, as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Age of Mythology: Retold, and Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, have all been mentioned for PlayStation ports.

Hollywood is looking to cash in on the massive popularity surrounding video game franchises by creating adaptations in the form of movies and TV shows, and now one more video game can be added to that list -- and it's not even released yet.

The newest video game to get an adaptation is Clair Obsur: Expedition 33, a new turn-based combat fantasy RPG from Sandfall Interactive and publisher Kepler Interactive. The title was part of Microsoft's summer showcase in August and was further highlighted during last week's Xbox Developer Direct.

It was only yesterday that Sandfall Interactive announced it's struggling to keep up with pre-orders for both the physical edition and collectors edition of the game, with Sanfall Interactive saying it's seen the "outpouring of support" for the title, and "Never could we have imagined we'd have sold out of our collectors editions so early, nor did we know the demand for our physical editions would be so high."

Mark Zuckerberg is tired of what he says behind closed doors at Meta eventually leaking to the public, which was revealed in leaked audio.

In a new report from 404 Media, it was revealed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is growing tired of what he says in internal meetings leaking, which is resulting in the CEO having to watch what he says during meetings as he doesn't want to diminish the value of what the company is trying to create. Zuckerberg is known for holding all-hands meetings in which Meta employees can respond to what Zuckerberg is discussing with their own questions. But due to the frequency of the contents of these meetings leaking, Meta has changed how the meetings work.

Instead of taking direct questions from staff Meta is now running a "poll" system where questions asked beforehand were voted on so the "main themes" of questions were addressed. As for what else Zuckerberg talked about during the all-hands meeting, the Meta CEO reiterated what is on the horizon for the company and how AI plays a pivotal role. Zuckerberg has previously stated that AI is going to replace many software engineers, and that open-source AI will soon overtake closed-source AI -- these same sentiments and others were told to Meta employees during the meeting.

Intel could have a trio of new Battlemage GPUs in the works, and if one of those is a higher-end model - as it may well be - the hope is that it might give NVIDIA's RTX 5000 graphics cards some competition.

The potential GPUs were spotted in the most recent patch for Linux, but only as PCI IDs (so just a basic identification code, with no name or other details), as highlighted by Tomasz Gawroński on X (see the above post).

Of course, a few ID numbers floating around may not mean much, and nothing could come of this.

DeepSeek unveiling its R1 model has completely shaken up the AI industry as the company claims its model is comparable to OpenAI's most advanced AI model, which took approximately $100 million to create. However, DeepSeek says it only spent $6 million to make R1.

The disparity between the development costs of OpenAI's o3 model and DeepSeeks R1 model put the industry in a tailspin, causing approximately $1 trillion to be wiped away from AI companies, particularly NVIDIA, the company providing the horsepower necessary to train these models. A part of the reason NVIDIA took such a stock hit was DeepSeek, saying it trained its R1 model using H800 GPUs, which were released in 2023.

The sentiment is - why pay for new and expensive NVIDIA hardware when the same or comparable results to what is considered the best AI model can be generated using hardware from 2023?

Keeping an eye on space for any potentially hazardous space rocks is a paramount mission for astronomers, which is why systems have been put in place for automatic detection of any suspicious objects.

A NASA-operated telescope located in Chile detected a suspicious object last year on Christmas Day, which resulted in the space agency's Asteroid Terrestrial Last Alert System (ATLAS) being triggered and manual follow-up observations being conducted by human researchers. Researchers then discovered the object was an asteroid, which has now been named 2024 YR4. The team found the asteroid's orbit around the Sun is elongated, and it's currently traveling directly away from Earth, almost in a straight line.

However, its almost straight-line trajectory has made it difficult for researchers to get accurate measurements of its speed, size, and characteristics. Preliminary estimations put 2024 YR4 at anywhere between 130 and 300 feet in diameter, it's speed at 38,700 mph, and a composition of silicate minerals, which are rock-forming minerals. Researchers will be able to see the asteroid until April this year, as it will disappear around the Sun and won't be visible again until 2028. That's when things could begin to get hairy, though.

What's the point of creating a humanoid robot if you can't race it? Well, many people agree with that sentiment, as a first-of-its-kind event is being planned where humans will take on humanoid robots over several miles.

In what seems like a humorous story at face value, engineers have been officially asked by event organizers to enter their bipedal robots into a long-distance running race that will take place in the Chinese capital's Daxing district. The event is being organized by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (E-Town), and tech firms have been invited to enter their humanoid robots, but there are a few stipulations.

Engineers must make sure their robot has a humanoid appearance and mechanical structure designed to be bipedal, meaning it moves using two legs. As you can probably imagine, using wheels to create any movement is wholly forbidden. Other rules include the height requirement of between 19.7 inches and 78.7 inches, with a maximum leg extension distance, which measures from the hip joint to the base of the foot, of 17.7 inches.

YouTuber JayzTwoCents attended a Micro Center in Tustin, where he built a brand new gaming PC live in order to celebrate NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 50 series GPU, where he signed an RTX 5090 for a fan... who threw it up for sale for $5800.

JayzTwoCents signed a custom ZOTAC GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card that Eric Wang purchased, and then throwing it up onto Facebook Marketplace for $5800, noting that it was signed by the YouTuber. JayzTwoCents took to his X account, saying "Epic didn't want long to scalp the card we signed in Tustin Micro Center today".

He followed up the post, adding: "I messaged him and called him a dick. I feel better now haha". The seller must have noticed, as he edited his listing to remote the mention that JayzTwoCents signed the box. JayzTwoCents replied to someone saying that the problem isn't with scalpers, but with scarcity and demand, to which the YouTuber responded: "I asked everyone who I signed 'are you keeping it or selling it' they all said keeping... so this guys a filthy liar".

OpenAI released its o1 model in December last year, and while OpenAI touted the model as the company's most advanced AI model yet, it does come with a hefty price tag if users want full access.

OpenAI is currently selling access to its o1 reasoning model under its ChatGPT Pro subscription, which comes in at $200 a month. Selecting this option grants the user unlimited access to the latest AI model, which differentiates itself from other AI models by its "reasoning" factor.

The o1 AI model is designed to be more thoughtful of the question a user is asking and implements a step-by-step chain-of-thought process, which makes it excel in specific tasks and categories of questioning. GPT-4 is a more general-purpose model for text generation, answering simple questions, or holding conversations.

Although low launch stock levels have seen the GeForce RTX 5080 and GeForce RTX 5090 sell out everywhere, a new GPU launch always means brand-new GeForce Game Ready Drivers. Yes, for those lucky enough to get one, the latest drivers offer day-one support for the new RTX Blackwell GPUs. However, this is also a major update for all GeForce RTX gamers.

GeForce Game Ready Driver 572.16 adds official support for DLSS 4 and the new AI-enhanced 'Transformer' model for Super Resolution and Ray Reconstruction, which dramatically improves image fidelity. With DLSS 4 Override, the latest technologies can be enabled in over 75 games and apps, and GeForce RTX 50 Series early adopters also gain access to the new Multi Frame Generation.

On the software side, the latest GeForce Game Ready Driver includes updates to the NVIDIA App, NVIDIA Broadcast, while adding a new driver-based Frame Generation option for RTX 50 Series GPUs called NVIDIA Smooth Motion. Plus, day-one support for Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

The Trump administration is looking at increased sanctions on the sale of NVIDIA AI chips to China, according to "people familiar with the matter" in a new report from Bloomberg.

US officials are looking to expand restrictions to cover NVIDIA's H20 AI GPUs, which can be used to develop and run AI software and services, acting as a scaled-down AI GPU that was designed to meet US export restrictions, and allowed onto the shores of China.

Bloomberg reports that the "people added that a decision on any restrictions is likely a long ways off, given that the Trump administration is only beginning to staff up in relevant departments. Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, Trump's pick to lead the agency that oversees chip trade curbs, said during a confirmation hearing Wednesday that he would be "very strong" on semiconductor controls, without providing more specifics".

Microsoft needs the help of advertisers to fulfill its gaming ambitions.

Editor's Note: Microsoft has not revealed any concrete plans to bring advertisements to Xbox games on consoles and/or PC.

Earlier this month at CES 2025, Microsoft's advertising group presented some interesting details about what the future of Xbox could look like. Microsoft has been doubling down on making Xbox more accessible than ever before through various endpoints across mobile, console, and PC, and that infrastructure could also host cross-platform advertisements for extra revenue.

Chinese AI company DeepSeek has been taking the headlines for nearly a week now, with US competitor OpenAI announcing ChatGPT... a new tailored version of ChatGPT designed to provide US government agencies with more ways to use OpenAI's frontier AI models.

OpenAI explained on its website that agencies can "deploy ChatGPT Gov in their own Microsoft Azure commercial cloud or Azure Government cloud on top of Microsoft's Azure's OpenAI Service. Self-hosting ChatGPT Gov enables agencies to more easily manage their own security, privacy, and compliance requirements, such as stringent cybersecurity frameworks (IL5, CJIS, ITAR, FedRAMP High)".

"Additionally, we believe this infrastructure will expedite internal authorization of OpenAI's tools for the handling of non-public sensitive data. Use of ChatGPT Gov is subject to our usage policies, like other OpenAI services".

PC gamers have jumped the fence of a next-door kindergarten in Japan after a chaotic lottery to secure their new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card... yikes.

Japanese media reports that one of the lotteries run by PC Koubou started at around 3 PM local time, and it ended in a mess. PC gamers were climbing over a fence of a kindergarten nearby, with screams heard, and a photo of a destroyed kindergarten sign. The RTX 5090 lottery ended before most attendees arrived, which saw PC gamers mad and upset at the venue.

In a post on X, "sarasteam0151" posted some photos from the RTX 5090 lottery in Japan, explaining (machine translation): "the PC Koubou Parts Hall has started calling for entries for a lottery to purchase the RTX 5090, but the situation is currently in chaos. Angry shouts were heard, and some people even climbed over the fence of the kindergarten next door".

Microsoft has made one point very clear to fans: once-exclusive Xbox games are coming to all platforms, including competitors like PlayStation and Nintendo.

Today Xbox announced that Forza Horizon 5 is coming to PlayStation 5 this spring, complete with cross-play with PC and Xbox. Once a shining star in console game exclusivity, the Forza franchise's cross-over to PS5 is the latest development in Microsoft's current plan to maximize game sales. Right now the Xbox division is under pressure to deliver specific margins following the $75.4 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard King, and this has led Xbox to target what it calls high-margin businesses, which include digital game sales, subscriptions, and microtransactions.

The plan is working, too. Microsoft's latest Q2FY25 financials indicate that improved profit margins at Xbox helped boost total More Personal Computing segment earnings. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella further underlined the games division's current cross-platform, exclusive-shy business model that had been previously discussed by Xbox's Phil Spencer on numerous occasions.

UL Solutions has just announced a big update to 3DMark, adding support for NVIDIA's new DLSS 4 and DLSS Multi Frame Generation to the NVIDIA DLSS feature test.

The upgraded NVIDIA DLSS feature test was developed in partnership with NVIDIA, letting you compare performance and image quality when enabling DLSS processing. If you've got one of NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, you'll be able to compare performance with and without the full capabilities of DLSS 4 upscaling.

The company explains: "The NVIDIA DLSS feature test is based on the 3DMark Port Royal ray tracing benchmark. The test runs in two passes. The first pass renders Port Royal with DLSS disabled to measure baseline performance. The second pass renders Port Royal at a lower resolution then uses DLSS processing to create frames at the output resolution. The result screen reports the frame rate for each run. For more details about the NVIDIA DLSS feature test, see our 3DMark user guide".