Latest News - Page 436

Famed video game director Hidetaka Miyazaki has sat down for an interview with Game Watch, where he revealed FromSoftware is currently working on multiple projects.

The interview was translated, and it revealed the studio is handling "multiple projects" that cover a "wide range of genres". Miyazaki revealed that not all of the titles are under his direction, and that some are "handled by other people". Additionally, the video game director teased that a new future is ahead of FromSoftware through these titles, so much so that Miyazaki believes, "I think we'll be able to show you a new FromSoftware in many different ways".

Miyazaki didn't reveal what the studio is working on specifically or any details about any of the titles currently in development. However, fans speculate the next game to come out of FromSoftware will be an Armored Core title, which would be helmed by Miyazaki. Unfortunately, that is just wishful speculation at the moment, as nothing has been confirmed. As for FromSoftware, the Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree was nominated for Game of the Year 2024 by the Game Awards, making it the first DLC for a game to be in the running for Game of the Year.

Microsoft has just shattered any hope that older machines that don't meet the requirements for Windows 11 will get some leeway leading into the official ending of the world's most popular operating system.

Windows 11 was released three years ago, and when the new operating system became available, users were faced with a slew of hardware requirements in order to upgrade. One of the biggest hurdles for users to get around was the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) hardware requirement, which is a hardware-based security requirement that resides within a motherboard or CPU processor. Most modern PCs shipping today automatically ship with TPM 2.0, making them Windows 11 eligible, but that doesn't help millions of machines with older hardware that don't meet the specification.

Microsoft explains in a recent blog post that TPM 2.0 will be required for how it integrates into the security side of a system, with The Verge explaining features such as Windows 11 like Credential Guard and Windows Hello for Business, BitLocker disk encryption, and Secure Boot, are all being helped by TPM 2.0. Microsoft even goes as far as to write, TPM 2.0 will be "a non-negotiable standard for the future of Windows," which means Microsoft won't be going back on any of its hardware requirements for Windows 11.

Bitcoin has finally officially reached the $100,000 mark, a celebratory milestone for all those who have been following the journey of the world's most valuable cryptocurrency.

The US$100,000 mark was hit on December 5, which is only a few weeks after Bitcoin smashed through the $90,000 psychology ceiling, spurring speculation that $100,000 was inbound - it appears that speculation was correct. At 3:08 am UTC, Bitcoin reached its all-time high of $104,000, which means it gained 125% since January and $31 billion in net inflows across spot exchange-traded funds in the US.

The increase can be attributed to Donald Trump's US presidential election victory, as speculation circulated that Trump will adopt BTC into the US national reserve, along with assisting in further integrating and legitimizing Bitcoin in the corporate space. Moreover, Trump recently appointed cryptocurrency advocate Paul Atkins to replace Gary Gensler as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair, which sparked speculation that regulatory hurdles preventing the further adoption of cryptocurrencies will solved.

A former boss of PlayStation has given a small bleak detail into the future of gaming consoles, with the former PlayStation boss saying consoles may have reached their peak when it comes to performance.

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Shawn Layden was asked about the current state of the gaming industry, along with what he thinks the future will look like for consoles and how the war between PlayStation and Xbox will continue. According to Layden, to properly evaluate the future, we must look at the past. The jump between the PS1 and PS2 was dramatic in terms of graphics fidelity.

The same goes for the jump between the PS2 and the PS3. However, from PS3 to PS4, the performance increase wasn't as noticeable as previous generations. Layden says we are reaching the end specifications for a console, and we will never see a jump in performance equivalent to the PS1 to the PS2. Additionally, Layden points out that there is very little difference between the hardware in both PlayStation and Xbox consoles, as AMD powers both. Layden suggests this could be the end of the console war between both platforms and provides the example of Betamax vs the VHS format, where Sony eventually caved to the VHS format as the industry standard.

We've previously covered Virtuix's Omni One, a full-body VR system that offers 360-degree movement because you're on a treadmill. It solves one of the key issues of VR gaming: being able to move around freely when confined to limited space.

The Omni One, priced at $3,495, is a complete system that includes a Pico 4 Enterprise headset with an impressive 4K 4320 × 2160 (1200 PPI) resolution, 90Hz refresh rate support, and the Snapdragon XR2 chipset. It is an all-in-one system, ala the Meta Quest, with its games, storefront, and library, while also being able to connect a PC and access SteamVR.

That brings us to the Omni One Core, which brings the same immersive full 360-degree movement and freedom as the Omni One system for PC gamers who already have a VR headset with controllers.

A new report from Bloomberg has revealed that SpaceX is in talks to sell off private shares held by employees at a price higher than expected.

Bloomberg cited people familiar with the matter, who informed the publication that SpaceX would be valued at approximately $350 billion, a stark increase from the previous estimation of $255 billion conducted earlier this year. The deal is noted as a tender offer and makes SpaceX the world's most valuable private company, putting it alongside mega-companies such as TikTok owner ByteDance. However, if you want to compare apples to apples, SpaceX stands alone in terms of valuation within the space industry, as there isn't another company that even comes close to the $350 billion mark.

This isn't surprising as SpaceX is far and away the leader in providing a reliable, reusable means of transportation to orbit. Its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets have become the workhorses for the company, delivering payloads to the International Space Station (ISS), various orbital altitudes, and a means of ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS. Additionally, SpaceX has had quite a lot of success with its Starlink internet access program, having more than 5 million monthly customers across 114 countries.

An OpenAI safety researcher has shared a message on her Substack saying she is quitting her position at the company as she believes her goal of implementing humanity-protecting policies into the development of AI can be better achieved externally.

OpenAI has seen a selection of pivotal staff members leave the company recently, and now another has been added to the list. Rosie Campbell joined OpenAI in 2021 with the goal of implementing safety policies for AI development, and now, according to a Substack post, the AI safety researcher is departing the company, citing several internal changes such as workplace culture and the ability to perform what Campbell believes is the most fundamental part of her job - AI safety.

Campbell wrote in the Substack post that she was a member of OpenAI's Policy Research team, where she worked closely with Miles Brundage, a senior staffer who worked at OpenAI's Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) team, a team dedicated to making sure the world is prepared for AGI when it's achieved. Notably, Brundage left OpenAI in October and published a letter on Substack citing concerns with OpenAI's internal policies regarding AGI safety and writing there are "gaps" in the company's readiness policy.

Corsair has just officially announced its new Vengeance RGB DDR5 CUDIMM memory modules, available in up to 96GB capacities and speeds (at first) of up to 9600 MT/s.

The company has engineered its new Vengeance RGB DDR5 CUDIMM memory modules for optimal performance with Intel's latest Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake-S" processors and flagship Z890 motherboards while maintaining backward compatibility with earlier DDR5 motherboards.

Corsair is selling its new Vengeance RGB DDR5 CUDIMM memory in kits of 48GB and 96GB, with the 48GB kits (2 x 24GB sticks) coming in 8000, 8200, 8400, and 8800 MT/s with varying latencies depending on the kit (CL38, CL40, CL42, and CL44, respectively).

OpenAI has just announced its new "Shipmas" period, with new features, products, and demos for the next 12 days starting December 5.

The ChatGPT creator is expected to debut its much-anticipated text-to-video service codenamed Sora, as well as a new reasoning model according to sources "familiar with OpenAI's plans" according to The Verge. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed the 12 days of "Shipmas" event on-stage at The New York Times' DealBook conference on Wednesday morning, but didn't elaborate.

Leading up to the launch, OpenAI staffers were teasing some of the upcoming releases on X, with one of them posting "What's on your Christmas list?" while another posted "Got back just in time to put up the shipmas tree". Sora boss Bill Peebles responded to a staffer who said that OpenAI is "unbelievably back" to which he replied with a single word: "Correct".

Google has just introduced its new generative AI video model, Veo, beating OpenAI's text-to-video service Sora, launching Veo into private preview on Google's in-house Vertex AI platform.

Google's new Veo model can generate "high-quality" 1080p resolution videos in multiple different visual and cinematic styles, all from text or image-based prompts. The search giant unveiled its text-to-video model a few months ago with generated clips that would be "beyond a minute" in length, but the company didn't specify... but now, these videos that were made by Veo are pretty astounding.

The latest version of Google Imagen 3 text-to-image generative will be online and available for all Google Cloud customers on Vertex "starting next week" says the company, which will see an expansion of its US-first release on Google's AI Text Kitchen in August 2024.

TEAMGROUP's gaming division T-FORCE has just unveiled its new XTREEM CKD DDR5-8800 CU-DIMM memory in a huge 48GB kit, with an OC hitting 9600 MT/s speeds. Check out the new DIMMs:

The new TEAMGROUP T-FORCE XTREEM CKD DDR5-8800 CUDIMM memory has been designed with an advanced Client Clock Driver, and with speeds hitting 9600 MT/s, the company says its new memory module "redefines overclocking potential with the groundbreaking CUDIMM platform, delivering exceptional performance and setting new industry milestones".

TEAMGROUP's new T-FORCE XTREEM CKD DDR5 has been designed for stability at an "exclusive frequency" of 9600 MT/s on 2 DIMM motherboards. The company is using a premium 2 mm-thick aluminium alloy heat spreader and high thermal conductivity silicone, it significantly improves heat dissipation by 10%. The company explains its "CNC cutting technology, matte sandblasting, and black anodizing processes create a refined, understated aesthetic. Paired with the iconic T-FORCE logo, it offers gamers a product combining high performance and premium design".

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has teased its next-gen Trainium3 AI accelerator at re:Invent on Tuesday, promising 4x higher performance than its current-gen Trainium2 chip.

The new Trainium3 AI accelerator is due in late 2025, with Gadi Hutt, director of product and customer engineering for AWS' Annapurna Labs team, expects the new AI accelerator to be the very first dedicated machine learning accelerator built on a 3nm process node (at TSMC) and hit a 40% improvement in efficiency over Trainium2.

Amazon hasn't been too clear on the exact performance of its Trainium3, but the 4x performance improvement figure is based on AWS' complete "UltraServer" configuration, which The Register reports is still in development. The outlet works out that the Trainium2 UltraServer features 64 accelerators, capable of 83.2 petaFLOPS of compute performance (unknown precision).

The first AMD B850-powered motherboard has been spotted, with the budget-focused mid-range chipset ready for AMD's new Ryzen 9000 series "Zen 5" processors.

In some new photos of GIGABYTE's upcoming B850M AORUS ELITE WIFI6E ICE motherboard from VideoCardz, we can expect a huge flood of B850 motherboards in the near future... probably at CES 2025 in January. We don't have much to go on with the photo, but it does show the B850M chipset, an all-white design, and AORUS branding on the VRMs.

AMD's new B850 chipset is a mid-range affair, featuring Gen5 and Gen 4 support -- which is fantastic to see, the mid-range B850 supporting Gen5 SSDs -- with motherboard makers to make the decision to have dedicated Gen5 lanes for discrete graphics cards if they want. B850 motherboards will support both memory and CPU overclocking, which will make them just that much more enticing against Intel's mid-range counterparts.

SK hynix and Samsung are massive memory rivals both residing in South Korea, but are now collaborating on LPDDR6-PIM (Processing-in-Memory) technology for future on-device AI products.

In a new report from MyDrivers, we're learning that the two South Korean memory giants are setting aside their (memory) differences, and forging together to standardize LPDDR6-PIM memory. We can expect LPDDR6-PIM to be released sometime in 2026, improving overall system performance for mainstream-focused devices.

Why is LPDDR6-PIM important? This will remove the need for additional computations that are otherwise run on the processor (CPU), meaning that there is less data transfer between both of the components (RAM + CPU). Not only are there performance improvements, but power consumption comes down massively, which will be a huge help for LPDDR6-PIM-powered devices of the future.

Meta is shifting into the warm arms of nuclear power for its AI training, with the company posting a new blog on its sustainability website saying that "we believe nuclear energy will play a pivotal role in the transition to a cleaner, more reliable, and diversified electric grid".

In the new post, Meta announces that it is going to release a request for proposals (RFP) to find nuclear energy developers to help them on their nuclear-powered journey. Meta aims to add 1-4 GW of new nuclear eneration capacity in the United States to be delivered "starting in the early 2030s".

Meta explains: "We are looking to identify developers that can help accelerate the availability of new nuclear generators and create sufficient scale to achieve material cost reductions by deploying multiple units, both to provide for Meta's future energy needs and to advance broader industry decarbonization. We believe working with partners who will ultimately permit, design, engineer, finance, construct, and operate these power plants will ensure the long-term thinking necessary to accelerate nuclear technology".

Ubisoft is making more deep cuts to reduce spending, this time leading to layoffs of over 200 people.

Yesterday, Ubisoft announced it was sunsetting its failed first-person shooter XDefiant. The game is effectively locked off from access, and will be taken offline in June 2025. The decision was a simple one to make: XDefiant wasn't profitable, and showed no signs of becoming profitable as soon as Ubisoft would've hoped. Rather than keep paying for upkeep, maintenance, and further content production, Ubisoft decided to freeze XDefiant and essentially start winding it down.

The game cancellation wasn't the only bad news from yesterday's announcement. Ubisoft is also closing down two studios in this cost-cutting pass. Production groups in San Francisco, USA and Osaka, Japan have been closed and the layoffs are expected to affect around 277, Game File's Stephen Totilo reports.

A former Apple employee has sued the company over alleged labor violations that accuse Apple of suppressing employee speech, and invading employee privacy via conducting surveilling on employees through personal iCloud accounts.

According to a new report from Semafor, the new lawsuit that was filed last Sunday in a California state court names the former Apple employee Amar Bhakta, who worked at Apple since 2020. According to Bhakta's suit, Apple used its internal policies to harm its employment prospects by preventing Apple employees from adequately describing their jobs, accomplishments while at Apple, and professional growth on job-search-based websites such as LinkedIn. Bhakta claims these policies surrounding job discussion have hindered his chances of future job prospects.

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges the Apple devices Apple employees are required to use "collect and use the valuable personal data" of employees during non-work periods. More specifically, the lawsuit states Apple employees have to agree to physical, video, and electronic surveillance by Apple and that Apple is within its rights to search any Apple or non-Apple device while an employee is on company premises. According to Bhakta's lawsuit, Apple employees are subject to "Apple's all-seeing eye" while both at work and at home.

Recently, Blizzard launched Warcraft I: Remastered and Warcraft II: Remastered, which updates the visuals of these iconic real-time strategy games alongside other improvements as part of the Warcraft franchise's 30th anniversary celebrations. With that, the original versions of these games are being delisted from services like GOG.

GOG, a division of CD Projekt Red, is committed to game preservation and ensuring classic games are not only available to purchase but also run on modern hardware. For Warcraft I and Warcraft II, the team at GOG enhanced these titles with multiplayer LAN support and improved graphics features like antialiasing and anisotropic filtering.

At Blizzard's request, both titles will be delisted from GOG on December 13. However, they will live on thanks to the GOG Preservation Program. If you want to pick these DRM-free versions, you can do so with the 'MakeWarcraftLiveForever' discount code.

Tesla CEO has lost his bid to get a $56 billion pay package reinstated, according to a recent ruling by a Delaware judge who upheld the original ruling in January, which denied the pay package.

The ruling came on Monday when Tesla CEO lost his bid to have his 2018 CEO pay package reinstated, which is estimated to be worth approximately $56 billion, making it the largest compensation package of any executive of a publicly traded company. Musk rebukes the ruling by the Delaware judge, writing on X, formerly Twitter, that he plans to appeal the ruling, which he describes as "absolute corruption".

Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick voided the push for the pay package back in January, citing Musk's control over Tesla at the time that enabled him to curate the pay package as he saw fit, and through a process that McCormick stated was "deeply flawed." Following these decisions, Tesla conducted a shareholder vote on the pay package in June, and the results were used by Musk's lawyers to try and convince McCormick to overturn her decision. However, it didn't work. McCormick said, "Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here."

A team of researchers has had their interest peak at the sight of mysterious "dark ovals" appearing on the surface of Jupiter, and given the size of Jupiter, these ovals are approximately the size of Earth.

A new paper published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy details a NASA-supported group of researchers analyzing the disturbances on Jupiter's upper atmosphere. These "dark ovals" appear near Jupiter's poles, and according to the researchers, they may be an indication of the processes within Jupiter's strong magnetic field, specifically a disturbance in Jupiter's ionosphere.

The team looked at images of Jupiter snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope between 2015 and 2022 and found the different atmospheric layers and the magnetic tornadoes that erupt within them are possibly causing these dark ovals to appear. The team explained that research such as this enables astronomers and scientists to further develop a more complete understanding of Jupiter and all-encompassing planetary processes.