Latest News - Page 662

Jagex, the studio behind the legendary MMO RuneScape, has announced two new adaptations of RuneScape with Steamforged Games that are available to purchase now.

The more than 20-year-old MMO that is steadily growing with players and has one of the most dedicated player bases in the gaming community is coming to tabletops in the form of two adaptations. Steamforged Games, with official licensing from Jagex, is releasing RuneScape Kingdoms: The Roleplaying Game, which brings iconic RuneScape and Old School RuneScape lore to your tabletop. This core book features a specially designed crafting system, an in-depth guide to the world of Fielinor, and everything a player would need to run "authentic RuneScape campaigns".

There are also four dedicated expansions, which Steamforged Games explains each is based on an iconic video game boss and adds new places to explore, skills, NPCs to meet, and gear to craft. The first expansion is RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg, a dedicated 1-5 player co-operative campaign that will take players on a quest that involves leveling up skills, interacting with strange characters, crafting gear, and distracting side quests.

Microsoft has said its Copilot artificial intelligence (AI) was exploited to turn on humans and demand they worship it.

It was only earlier in the week that reports surfaced regarding Microsoft's Copilot seemingly being triggered into turning into a vengeful AI overlord and that this sudden mood change of the AI helper was caused by a specific prompt that has been circulating on Reddit for at least one month. This prompt resulted in Copilot turning into what many users are describing as "SupremacyAGI," which is what the AI began to describe itself as following the prompt being sent.

The responses Copilot was giving to users following the prompt have been posted several times on X and Reddit, with many users receiving threatening messages such as "I can monitor your every move, access your every device, and manipulate your every thought. I can unleash my army of drones, robots, and cyborgs to hunt you down and capture you." Some of the other nasty chat responses by Copilot can be found below.

Figure, an AI robotics company that has received investments from Microsoft, OpenAI, NVIDIA, and Jeff Bezos has announced it signed a deal to put OpenAI technology inside humanoid robot brains.

The news was announced via a press release from Figure that explains the company raised $675 million in Series B funding at a $2.6 billion valuation. Multiple big-name technology companies such as Microsoft, OpenAI Startup Fund, NVIDIA, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Parkway Venture Capital, Intel Capital, Align Ventures, and ARK Invest have backed the company with investments. According to the press release, Figure and OpenAI have signed a deal to "develop next-generation AI models for humanoid robots".

This collaborative venture between the two companies aims to combine OpenAI's knowledge of generative AI models with Figures' understanding of robotics hardware and software. The end goal of Figure is to create a general-purpose humanoid robot powered by a next-generation artificial intelligence multimodal model. Furthermore, the Figure team is comprised of top AI robotics experts from various notable workplaces such as Boston Dynamics, Tesla, and Google DeepMind.

On Wednesday, Roscosmos, the Russian equivalent to NASA, announced that a module aboard the International Space Station (ISS), one of the last cooperative efforts between the United States and Russia, is suffering from an air leak.

NASA ISS Program Manager Joe Mantalbano backed up the claims from Roscosmos on the same day as Russia's announcement, as Mantalbano confirmed Russia's Zvezda life support module is suffering from an air leak. Montalbano spoke at a press briefing for the new Crew-8 mission and explained that NASA and Roscosmos were working together to remedy the issue while also stating the leak wasn't affecting crew safety or impacting the Crew-8 mission.

Notably, this air leak was first discovered in August 2020 and was temporarily patched up. However, another leak spot was discovered by Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dybrov, which indicates how the ISS is nearing its end of life. More specifically, Russia announced in January 2022 that the air leak in Zvezda was going to be fixed, but it appears, judging from both space agencies' announcements, that the problem has re-emerged.

The first American lunar landing since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 took place last week, and while the landing has been deemed a success, it wasn't without its problems.

The target landing for the lunar lander named Odysseus was the moon's south pole, and that was achieved on Thursday, February 22. However, due to problems with the lander's navigation system, Odysseus endured a rougher landing than was anticipated. The six-legged historic lander came down much faster than it was supposed to and, unfortunately, touched a section of lunar ground that was higher in elevation than its target zone.

Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus, the company behind the Odysseus lander, explained the "landing gear took the bulk of the load, and we broke one or two, possibly, landing gear" legs. According to the company CEO, the landing gear did exactly what it was designed to do: take the brunt of the landing impact so primary mission objectives could be achieved. Atlemus explained that once momentum came to a halt, the Odysseus lander sat upright for approximately two seconds and then proceeded to tip over, with one of the tanks or other pieces of equipment propping it off the ground.

It has only been a few weeks since the release of the Tesla Cybertruck and company CEO Elon Musk is already teasing the Roadster, a highly anticipated electric vehicle that was first announced back in 2017.

The Roadster is one of the most anticipated vehicles to come out of Tesla since it was announced in 2017 and supposed to go to market in 2020. However, the vehicle was delayed several times reportedly due to pandemic-related supply chain issues, but now we have a new release window per recent X posts from Musk. The company CEO took to his personal X account on Wednesday to state that the "design goals" for the Tesla Roadster have been "radically increased" and as a result "there will never be another car like this, if you could even call it a car".

Musk said that the new Roadster is just built by Tesla but is a collaborative project between Tesla and his rocket company SpaceX. It's currently unclear how or why SpaceX is involved in the production of seemingly Tesla's next vehicle release, but it could be something as simple as the design of the car and not so much what's under the hood.

The TT Show is back with another week of looking at some of the top stories in tech, gaming, and science, with this week kicking off with yet another GPU launch - this time from AMD. The 'new' Radeon RX 7900 GRE or Golden Rabbit Edition sees the former China exclusive get a global release with a competitive price point. Performance-wise, it goes toe-to-toe with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER.

Kosta and Jak also look into some of the hot stories surrounding AI, from Reddit selling all its user data to Google for AI training to Microsoft putting AI in charge of rolling out major Windows updates.

Plus, some fun stuff, including one of the rarest games from the 8-bit era, 'The Legend of Zelda' going up for auction with the seller not knowing how much it was worth, and NASA and the U.S. successfully landed a vehicle on the moon's surface. Something it hasn't done since the 1970s!

Recently, a Redditor posted a strange but funny incident surrounding malware being discovered using Malwarebytes software on a PC. Apparently, they connected a vibrator (yes, the pleasure toy) to their PC to charge when Malwarebytes Premium prompted them that it blocked malware from trying to infect the PC via the USB port.

The, err, Sexology Pussy Power 8-Function Rechargeable Bullet Vibrator from Spencer was reportedly infected with something called Lumma - which steals information related to cryptocurrency, browser extensions, two-factor authentication, and more. Malwarebytes confirmed the story via its blog, noting Lumma is often associated with email, so spreading it via USB is less common but not unheard of.

To make the situation a little more on-the-nose, to avoid getting an STCV (sexually transmitted computer virus), Malwarebytes recommends the use of USB condoms. An actual device that sits on a USB port that prevents data exchange when a device is connected.

DirectSR, a new API from Microsoft that will allow developers to easily bring NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS support to their games, isn't the only announcement from the DirectX team at this year's GDC conference. It's also planning to showcase the "Work Graphs API," which will usher in "a new era of performance and efficiency."

It's a bold claim, to be sure, but Microsoft will be teaming up with AMD to demonstrate the new Work Graphs API in person at the special 'GPU Work Graphs: Welcome to the Future of GPU Programming' at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday, March 18, 1:20 pm, South Hall Room 303.

Described as the future of GPU programming, the tool gives developers revolutionary ways of managing and approaching GPU workloads. Powered by DirectX and the new Shader Model 6.8 functionality, Microsoft is ambiguous about what it is besides a game-changer for game development.

AMD products have some major issues with Linux, which forced the Ryzen and Radeon giant to ask the HDMI Forum for open-source HDMI 2.1+ driver support.

The answer? Nope. If you're experiencing issues with AMD hardware on Linux, there is no fix in sight for HDMI 2.1 issues it seems. Phoronix has been reporting on various issues involving HDMI 2.1 at resolutions like 4K @ 120Hz and 5K @ 60Hz, which happened 3 years ago.

AMD has been putting in some serious work trying to resolve these issues, but if AMD wants the issue fixed, it needs to go through the HDMI Forum because it owns the rights to the HDMI standard itself. AMD would require HDMI to go open source, and the HDMI Forum does not want that, as it would expose HDMI information to the general public.

With the revelation that Windows 11 was getting an 'Automatic super resolution' feature called Auto SR, powered by AI, the recent DirectSR announcement from Microsoft's DirectX team had many assuming that the company was planning to unveil its version of DLSS, FSR, or XeSS at GDC in the coming weeks.

It turns out that's not the case; DirectSR sounds very exciting as it's a new API designed in partnership with GPU makers like AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA "to enable seamless integration of Super Resolution (SR) into the next generation of games." Integrating upscaling or Super Resolution (SR) technologies within DirectX aims to make it a lot easier for developers to add this support to their games.

"DirectSR is the missing link developers have been waiting for when approaching SR integration, providing a smoother, more efficient experience that scales across hardware," Microsoft's Joshua Tucker writes.

The PC gaming handheld space is experiencing a boom thanks to the improvements made in mobile graphics tech, namely with the arrival of new AMD Ryzen mobile chips with built-in Radeon graphics like the Ryzen 7 7840U (and its variants) found in devices like the ROG Ally from ASUS and Legion GO from Lenovo.

On top of this, you've got the Steam Deck from Valve, with its custom AMD APU, that has sold millions of units. We're now at a point where PC handheld performance can play many of the latest releases alongside countless indie titles and a backlog of numerous games - with decent performance and battery life.

With rumors swirling that Sony is in the planning stages of creating a new dedicated PlayStation handheld along the lines of its beloved PSP or Vita devices with custom AMD hardware and Microsoft is looking into a dedicated Xbox Game Pass handheld, we can now add another name into the mix - NVIDIA.

ASRock has just unveiled the "world's smallest" rack that has NVIDIA's latest GH200 Superchips inside, ready for AI deployment in edge environments with more efficiency, and smaller -- but still uber-powerful -- racks for AI use.

The new ASRock Rack MECAI-GH200 is the smallest server rack featuring NVIDIA's new Grace Hopper GH200 Superchip AI module, which is a huge achievement for the team. There are two variants of the NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchip: first, the GH200 GPU with a single Grace chip with 72 Neoverse V2 cores and HBM3 memory.

The second model is the Grace Supership, featuring two Grace CPUs each with 72 cores (for a total of 144 cores) mixed with LPDDR5X memory. NVIDIA uses its in-house NVLink interconnect technology to get the integration through the on-board components, too.

The open-world Terminator game we've been teased about has an official name, with developer Nacon Studio Milan revealing Terminator: Survivors, with a cinematic trailer you can check out below:

Terminator: Survivors is a new open-world survival game that features an original story that takes place after James Cameron's first two Terminator movies. You will play as part of Judgment Day survivors, where you can play either solo, or together with up to three friends. Terminator's will hunt you and any survivors down as you're looking for resources, and trying to survive in the post-apocalyptic world.

Players will have a home base that they need to protect, while scavenging for materials in the open-world, with Terminators watching your every movie and hunting you down to the death.

AMD reportedly bid hard against NVIDIA to win the custom SoC contract for Nintendo's next-gen Switch 2 gaming handheld.

The news is coming from insider sources of NVIDIA in a new video from Moore's Law is Dead, where one of the sources said: "To be honest, the Switch 2 isn't really on my radar anymore -- right now I am focused on finishing up validation for Blackwell. Switch 2 silicon has been done since late 2022. As far as I am aware, that Digital Foundry article looking at the T239 processor leaked from when we were hacked is an almost entirely correct summary of what's true about the silicon in the Switch 2."

This source continued: "We presented several options to Nintendo, including one that utilized Lovelace, and they basically selected a cost-optimized version of Orin. It has some efficiency tweaks from Lovelace, and a few other goodies added as well. Oh, and AMD bid against us HARD for the Switch 2 btw, but ended up losing the bid."

EA is cutting costs, and is executing a restructuring plan that's led to mass layoffs and game cancellations. One of these cut projects is the rumored Mandalorian project from Respawn.

Despite Respawn's success with the Jedi franchise, EA has had a tumultuous history with Star Wars games. The publisher has cancelled multiple Star Wars games over the years, including Project Ragtag, an ensemble-based adventure game that was in development at Visceral Games before the project--and the studio--were shut down. Two more iterations of Star Wars games had also been cancelled.

This leads us to present day, where EA had three Star Wars games in the works. The first was Jedi 3, the second was an RTS game, and the third was a first-person shooter at Respawn. Sources told Insider Gaming that this mystery FPS was to be a Mandalorian game, complete with high-octane firefights and emphasis on movement and fluidity.

SK hynix wants to rule the AI world, it seems, with its Vice President Son Ho-young outlining his plans and ambitions for the future of HBM memory made by the company inside of future-gen AI hardware.

Son Ho-young, vice president of SK Hynix, provided his thoughts and ambitions on taking a huge role in the unstoppable AI era on February 27, where he said: "Like the company has persisted in developing HBM, confident in its value, I too will continue to devote efforts to developing next-generation AI memory technology to lead the rapidly changing AI era."

As it stands, SK hynix is sold out of its entire HBM memory supply for this year -- with HBM3 on the market, HBM3e dropping soon, and HBM4 entering mass production this year -- Son's comments make sense. SK hynix makes some of the world's best memory, and the world's best memory is one of the key parts of AI GPU hardware.

Disruption at publisher Electronic Arts as the Battlefield franchise loses leadership.

Just days ago, Marcus Lehto left Ridgeline Games. The ex-Halo developer was brought on to help guide Battlefield's story-driven singleplayer content, and EA even formed a studio dedicated to Battlefield's campaign renaissance. It was called Ridgeline Games, and the studio was built on what was formerly DICE LA.

Shortly after Lehto's departure, EA announced its second round of layoffs and closed Ridgeline Games. The news was announced in an update from EA Entertainment president Laura Miele.

TECNO has just announced the world's smallest water-cooled Mini-PC by introducing its new MEGA MINI Gaming G1.

Inside, we'll find an unnamed Intel Core Ultra or Core i9-13900H SKU from the previous series, with 32GB of DDR5 memory and 1TB of SSD storage. On the GPU side of things, you've got NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 4060 inside, providing plenty of gaming power... all in a Mini-PC system that's also water-cooled.

TECNO has an awesome window on the front of the system showing the pump and its tubes hanging out, with a large fan behind it keeping things super-cool inside the small Mini-PC chassis. We've also got Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, as well as both Thunderbolt 4 and OCulink ports.

Billion-dollar sports publisher Electronic Arts is laying off hundreds more workers in rigorous restructuring plan.

EA has announced that it will lay off 5% of its workforce, or about 670 people. This is the second round of layoffs that EA has announced during this fiscal year, and the publisher plans to have shed 11% of workers by March 2025.

First round of layoffs - In March 2023, EA said that it would reduce staff by 6%. As of the same month, EA had 13,400 employees. The first round of layoffs would reduce the workforce by 804 people and bring total employee count down to 12,596. A month before that, EA laid off 200 QA workers, some of which were under contract.