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Could Final Fantasy XIV: ARR be a PlayStation VR launch title?

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Sep 16, 2015 4:42 PM CDT

Square Enix's sprawling MMORPG gem Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn might very well find its way alongside the PlayStation VR's launch selection--or at the very least some sort of inclusion on the virtual reality platform.

Attendees at this year's Tokyo Game Show will get the chance to play FF14 within a VR space, breaking barriers that could pave the way for full-on VR MMORPG experiences. The VR demo sees a team of players working together to fight Titan, a primal boss who reigns in the magma-filled pit called The Navel.

This might very well be the first functioning multiplayer MMORPG VR demo ever showcased, and it's a pretty big deal. Thankfuly Square Enix and Sony do it in style and pick one of the best games in the genre today. While the spectacle itself is quite noteworthy, things get really interesting when we think about what the demo could lead to.

Continue reading: Could Final Fantasy XIV: ARR be a PlayStation VR launch title? (full post)

New Bloodborne expansion slashes its way to PS4 in November

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Sep 16, 2015 1:15 PM CDT

At this year's annual Tokyo Game Show event, Sony unveiled a name and a release date for Bloodborne's anticipated expansion: it's called The Old Hunters and it releases November 24.

New Bloodborne expansion slashes its way to PS4 in November

"The Old Hunters is set in a nightmare world where hunters from the past are trapped forever, explore brand new stages full of dangers, rewards, and deadly beasts to overcome," a new post on the PlayStation Blog affirms. "You'll find multiple new outfits and weapons to add to your arsenal as well as additional magic to wield and add more variety to your combat strategy."

Sony also revealed that Miyazaki's macabre PS4 exclusive has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide, which isn't surprising due to the hardcore fanbase that worships the dark altar of Miyazaki's cruel splendor. Interestingly enough the master himself said that Bloodborne's limited nature was one of the reasons he was excited about returning to Dark Souls 3.

Continue reading: New Bloodborne expansion slashes its way to PS4 in November (full post)

VR headsets expected to ship 30 million units by 2020

We all know that virtual reality headsets are set to take off, but just how many will be sold before the decade is up? According to hi-tech analyst firm Juniper Research, around 30 million VR headsets will be sold by 2020.

However, in 2016 just 3 million units will be sold, according to the firm. If we look at the HTC Vive coming out later this year, the Oculus Rift next year, and the PlayStation VR headset from Sony, VR headsets are going to be something completely new for consumers. Juniper Research claims that with technological advancements in the form of low latency and smarter graphics, as well as growth from big companies, VR is going to explode.

In Juniper's latest insights research report 'Virtual Reality: Market Dynamics & Future Prospects 2015-2020' the firm says that 2016 is the year it all changes for VR headsets. Report co-author Joe Crabtree said: "The recent attention to and investment into virtual reality is helping to revitalise the industry and with major brand commercial launches imminent, there is huge potential for rapid market expansion".

Continue reading: VR headsets expected to ship 30 million units by 2020 (full post)

NVIDIA reportedly preparing GeForce GTX 980 for laptops

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Sep 16, 2015 8:44 AM CDT

The GeForce GTX 980M is already quite the mobile GPU, but as usual, NVIDIA isn't just sitting around doing nothing on the mobile GPU front. The company is reportedly preparing a new, very powerful mobile GPU that would pack the full GM204 GPU.

What's the 'full GM204' GPU you ask? Well, it's the identical GPU that is found on the GeForce GTX 980, the desktop video card from NVIDIA that was released last year. This means we can expect the full 2048 CUDA cores, 256-bit memory bus, and 4GB of GDDR5. We did expect a GTX 990M according to the rumors that we last reported on, but it looks like this new GPU is going to be the GM204-based GTX 980, this time inside of a gaming laptop.

The mobile GTX 980 would feature 2048 CUDA cores, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPS - just like its desktop counterpart. If we compare this to the GTX 980M, found inside of gaming laptops like the ASUS ROG G751 that we reviewed here, it has 1536 CUDA cores, 96 TMUs and 64 ROPs. Moving over to clock speeds, the desktop GTX 980 has a GPU clock of 1126MHz and a Boost clock of 1218MHz while the GTX 980M comes in at 1038MHz, while the new GM204-based mobile GTX 980 will reportedly clock in at 1190MHz.

Continue reading: NVIDIA reportedly preparing GeForce GTX 980 for laptops (full post)

AMD: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will have DX12 support at launch

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Sep 16, 2015 6:40 AM CDT

Without a firm release date from Eidos Montreal, we don't yet know when Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will be released exactly, except for sometime in 2016. But something we do know, is that it will ship with support for DX12 on day one.

I had a lengthy chat with AMD's Chief Gaming Scientist, Richard Huddy, earlier today about all things DX12 and Asynchronous Shaders, where AMD talked about having their technology and support in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Since they used Mankind Divided in their own internal materials, I thought I'd ask if we'd see DX12 support at launch. Huddy replied, saying that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided would indeed launch with DX12 support.

Not only that, but Mankind Divided will also include AMD's own TressFX Hair 3.0 technology alongside DX12. The news to take away from this is that we've just had a confirmation of DX12 support in Mankind Divided out of the box. I had a suspicion that it would launch with DX11 support and would later be patched with DX12 support, but it looks like we can expect DX12 support straight off the bat. Additionally, I pushed Huddy to see if we will see a built-in benchmark for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, as it would be the best example of testing the differences between DX11 and DX12. Huddy confirmed that Mankind Divided will include a built-in benchmark, too.

Continue reading: AMD: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided will have DX12 support at launch (full post)

Sharp teases an 85-inch 8K TV that will cost up to $133,000

Anthony Garreffa | Displays & Projectors | Sep 16, 2015 1:03 AM CDT

We're not even comfortable with the 4K TVs that are here, and now we're being teased with 8K TVs throwing an insane 7680x4320 resolution into the mix. Sharp has started teasing its first 8K TV, with an 85-inch 8K TV set to be released next month.

The new 85-inch 8K TV will feature Sharp's IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) backplane, as well as a slew of other technologies. The mammoth 8K TV will be aimed at commercial and specialized applications, including content creation, digital signage, museums, professional, military, healthcare, and other industries.

But what about 8K content, you ask? Good question. NHK will begin broadcasting 8K super hi-vision content sometime in 2018, which is when we're to expect consumers to start snapping up 8K TVs. But, outside of that, we have no idea what type of content there will be for 8K TVs, as gaming is going to require an insane amount of horsepower to drive that resolution. But with technologies like NVIDIA's Pascal architecture right around the corner, as well as the shrink down to 16nm and HBM2, we should be good as gold.

Continue reading: Sharp teases an 85-inch 8K TV that will cost up to $133,000 (full post)

The MU-MIMO revolution begins, according to Moor Insights & Strategy

Anthony Garreffa | Connectivity & Cloud | Sep 15, 2015 8:54 PM CDT

Most people probably haven't even heard about MU-MIMO, but it's about to be a huge upgrade to Wi-Fi technology and speeds. We've been living with 802.11 a/b/g/n for a while, and even through the 5GHz upgrade, the overall speeds didn't leap near Gigabit, or 10GbE Ethernet.

The 'MU' in MU-MIMO stands for 'Multi-User', with it being the new Wave 2 specification of 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology. The big difference is that multiple data streams can be taken into consideration, with multiple antennas on the base station and client device blasting out data all at once. If there's four antennas on the base station, and four on your Wi-Fi card, then you can expect four streams of data simultaneously.

Anshel Sag, Staff Technologist and Technical Writer, took MU-MIMO for a spin in his research paper on MU-MIMO and 802.11ad Wi-Fi, with some interesting results. Sag reported: "In our own lab testing at Moor Insights & Strategy using off the shelf equipment at retail stores, MU-MIMO smartphones when paired with a MU-MIMO access point, experienced a 75% TCP (transmission control protocol) download performance uplift going from 260 Mbps bandwidth with three smartphones to 455 Mbps with three MUMIMO enabled smartphones. In fact, overall network bandwidth utilization actually increased as we added devices to the network, rather than decrease, which it did in the case of nonMU Wi-Fi which can partially attribute to the poor Wi-Fi performance in crowded areas".

Continue reading: The MU-MIMO revolution begins, according to Moor Insights & Strategy (full post)

Halo 5 aiming for 'dynamic resolution' of 1080p at 60FPS

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Sep 15, 2015 7:19 PM CDT

With the release of Halo 5: Guardians getting closer and closer, we're receiving more details on what will make the game tick. 343 Industries, the developer behind the game, has let out some information on the visual side of the game.

A post on the Xbox Wire blog from Josh Holmes says "framerate is king" for the team. Dinges added that "Gameplay is defined by the way that players experience the game from controller to screen. We want the connection between you and the game to feel seamless and instantaneous. From the beginning, we set ourselves the goal of delivering consistent 60fps gameplay across all modes of play. Delivering on this goal meant re-engineering the gameplay systems at the core of our engine. It required sustained commitment from the entire team as we continually optimized the experience, and the difference it makes to the play experience is immediate and obvious".

He continued: "60fps gameplay is supported by a new progressive resolution system that allows us to dynamically scale the resolution at which we render the game (up to 1080p) based on the needs of the scene. This enables us to deploy resources where they have most impact across a diverse series of experiences throughout the game while delivering the most visually stunning Halo game ever".

Continue reading: Halo 5 aiming for 'dynamic resolution' of 1080p at 60FPS (full post)

Sony slashes PS4's retail price in Japan

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Sep 15, 2015 6:02 PM CDT

At this year's annual Tokyo Game Show, Sony announces a pretty hefty price drop for the PlayStation 4 across the Japanese market.

Sony slashes PS4's retail price in Japan

Starting October 1, the PlayStation 4 will be marked down from ¥39,980 to ¥34,980 in its home country of Japan, which equates to ~$291 or €258. Sony Computer Entertainment Japan and Asia President Atsushi Morita iterate the price cut will "provide an opportunity for users who have not yet been exposed to this device to dive into the world of PlayStation 4."

Considering the console retails for $399 in the U.S. that's a pretty significant cut and if you're in the market for a new console it might be worth shipping it overseas. It's worth mentioning that this price drop is just for the base console and excludes bundles--it ships with the 500GB PS4 and a DualShock 4 controller only.

Continue reading: Sony slashes PS4's retail price in Japan (full post)

Robot professional seeks ban to stop development of sex robots

Michael Hatamoto | Science, Space, & Robotics | Sep 15, 2015 10:35 AM CDT

Robot ethicist Dr. Kathleen Richardson doesn't want to see robots developed for a primary function of sexual interaction with humans. In her public campaign, Dr. Richardson said developing robots for this use is unnecessary and undesirable, as more advancements progress.

"Sex robots seem to be a growing focus in the robotics industry and the models that they draw on - how they will look, what roles they would play - are very disturbing indeed," Dr. Richardson told the BBC. "We think that the creation of such robots will contribute to detrimental relationships between men and women, adults and children, men and men and women and women."

Some "adult entertainment" companies are implementing robots and electronics into their products, and True Companion is preparing Roxxxy - the first "sex robot" - which is expected to launch sometime in 2015.

Continue reading: Robot professional seeks ban to stop development of sex robots (full post)

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