Latest News - Page 757

Payday 3's launch has been hampered by a dire matchmaking issue that prevented gamers from playing the game.

Embracer Group today published its Q2 results, showing signs of revenue growth that's being offset by higher opex (operating expenditures) and spending. Nestled in the Q2 announcement was a quick performance update on released titles, including Starbreeze's Payday 3.

According to the report, Payday 3 has missed internal expectations and is forecasted to continue delivering lower-than-expected results throughout the remainder of the year. That being said, Payday 3 is profitable, and Embracer has confirmed the game has recouped all development costs. A dollar value figure was attached to Embracer's completed and released games in Q2, which amounts to 1.120 billion SEK, or about $105 million.

In news that will surprise just about everyone reading it, Apple has confirmed that it is going to add support for RCS to the iPhone starting in 2024. And early 2024, at that.

While iMessage is an Apple-only instant messaging service that allows for rich messaging features like high-quality media, reactions, and more, it means that iPhone owners can't use it to communicate with those who have Android phones. It's been a bone of contention for years, with Google choosing to use the RCS standard instead. That offers much of what iMessage is capable of, but it works across all devices that support it. The iPhone was the last holdout - until today.

Speaking to TechRadar, Apple says that it will start to support the RCS messaging standard from early 2024 thanks to a software update that will enable the RCS Universal Profile. That will ensure that people will be able to send and receive messages with others no matter what device they have, all without having to use a third-party app like WhatsApp or Telegram.

When you updated your Apple Watch to watchOS 10 back in September 2023 you probably noticed that you could no longer wipe from one watch face to another, allowing you to quickly change when you want a new look or additional functionality. The removal of the feature didn't go down very well with a lot of people, but it now appears that Apple is going to fix its mistake and bring the feature back to Apple Watch users all around the world.

Apple's watchOS 10.2 beta 3 update is now in the hands of beta testers who have been putting the new update through its paces. And one of those is developer and researcher @aaronp613, an X user who has a history of finding unannounced features in new beta software. According to a post by them, the watchOS 10.2 beta 3 release brings back the much-loved swipe gesture for changing watch faces.

There will be an option to enable and disable the feature via the Settings app, under the Clock sub-setting so there will be a way to prevent accidental swipes changing faces if that's something that you've experienced in the past.

When Apple announced the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro in September of 2022, it also announced a new feature that had the potential to save lives. Emergency SOS via Satellite allows people to call for help even when they don't have a cellular signal and Apple said that it would give everyone two free years of coverage when they bought a new iPhone. That continued when the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro arrived in September of 2023. Now, Apple has announced an extension to that program for those who bought an iPhone 14 family of devices.

The extension, Apple says, gives everyone who bought one of those iPhone 14 family of devices before 12am on November 15 2023 an extra year of coverage. That means that the normal two years will be extended to three years for those who already have an iPhone 14. Those who bought an iPhone 15 still only get the two years, however.

Apple's iPhone 15 event also saw Apple add support for the Roadside Assistance via Satellite feature which builds on the previous feature and allows people to contact the AAA if they need to get help due to a breakdown. That could be vital if you're in the middle of nowhere with no signal of course, and it's a feature that will hopefully expand beyond the United States once Apple signs deals with the relevant roadside repair companies around the globe.

EVE Online is known for its drama and controversies, and a huge one just happened involving the theft of an unthinkable amount of in-game currency.

The long-standing MMOG just witnessed the theft of several trillion ISK (Inter-Stellar Kredit) taken by a certain Jay Amazingness, a fleet commander of the 'Goonswarm' alliance.

The ISK was pilfered from the alliance itself and according to a report on Reddit (spotted by TechRadar), Jay Amazingness also destroyed 52,670 clones as an additional parting gift.

It's sales season, and with Black Friday right around the corner, Microsoft is kicking off its big Xbox sale this weekend with some pretty tasty Black Friday Deals on all things Xbox. For those looking to pick up an Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S console, starting November 18, you'll be able to get $50 off select models of both.

For the entry-level gamer, the Xbox Series S Starter Bundle for $249.99 USD will make for a great holiday treat as it includes three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate - which includes access to games like Starfield, Forza Motorsport, and hundreds more. For those looking for the most powerful gaming console, the $50 discount brings the price of the Xbox Series X down to $449.99 USD.

As the official Black Friday Deals from Microsoft, these deals will be available via Xbox.com and the Microsoft Store this weekend. And moving beyond the consoles, Microsoft has announced some major digital discounts on games - up to 50% off "over 1,000 console games." Going through the list, we even saw older titles discounted by up to 80%.

Microsoft formally announced its custom AI chips at the company's Ignite conference - the Microsoft Azure Cobalt 100 CPU built using Arm architecture and the Microsoft Azure Maia AI Accelerator, a GPU designed and optimized for generative AI and large language models. Both are set to arrive in 2024, and based on the current demand for NVIDIA hardware like the H100 GPUs, it could see Microsoft and its massive Azure cloud move away from having to buy pricey chips from other companies.

The Azure Cobalt 100 CPU and Azure Maia 100 AI Accelerator have been developed in-house at Microsoft, alongside an overhaul of the entire Azure cloud server stack as the Age of AI begins. The Maia 100 AI Accelerator uses TSMCC's 5nm process with 105 billion transistors, which is higher than the NVIDIA Hopper H100 GPU's 80 billion. However, it is lower than the 153 billion found on AMD's MI300X AI GPU built on a similar 5nm process.

Of course, transistor counts and overall performance are two different things, but it's an impressive showing from Microsoft. And it's the very first liquid-cooled processor built by Microsoft.

Silicon Motion's SM2508 PCIe 5.0 SSD controller is destined to power some of the best upcoming Gen5 SSDs thanks to it using TSMC's 6nm process. Compared to the 12nm process found in controllers from the competition, the switch to 6nm should offer a 45% decrease in power reduction for faster and more efficient performance with speeds of up to 14.5 GB/s.

The company shared more details on its upcoming SM2508 PCIe 5.0 SSD controller at the Memory Trend Seminar 2023 event in Shenzhen, China. Here, Silicon Motion announced that it will use a more advanced process node, giving it the edge over something like Phison's E26 controller. Previously, we reported on Silicon Motion's SM2508 PCIe 5.0 SSD controller during Flash Memory Summit 2023.

Silicon Motion's SM2508 features an Arm-based processor with four Cortex-R8 cores clocked at up to 1.25 GHz with a single Cortex-M0 core and intelligent power management - a decision made to hit the right balance between performance and power consumption. Silicon Motion is saying that the SM2508 controller draws less than 3.5W.

NVIDIA is ramping up its GeForce RTX 40 SUPER family of graphics cards hitting the desktop in January 2024, but now we're hearing that there will be NO new gaming laptops with mobile RTX 40 SUPER series GPUs.

Jarrod'sTech tweeted out that we're starting to see the first public confirmations of no new laptop GPUs in early 2024, with Tom over at Moore's Law is Dead confirming this. MLID replied, saying that he can confirm that no "SUPER" laptops are planned and that the next major NVIDIA laptop refresh will "be in 2025 around CES" and released as part of their next-gen GeForce RTX 50 "Blackwell" GPU series.

MLID says that this was confirmed to him "directly from contacts at NVIDIA." We should expect NVIDIA to unveil its next-gen GeForce RTX 50 series "Blackwell" GPU family sometime in Q1 2025, or even sooner at this rate. The GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, and GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER will be NVIDIA's only new RTX 40 series GPU releases in 2024, and then all roads will lead to Blackwell for desktop and mobile GPUs for NVIDIA.

PNY has just announced its new CS3150 Gen5 SSD that offers up to a blistering 12GB/sec of read speeds, an interesting dual-fan cooler, and it comes in 3 different color options.

The new PNY CS3150 Gen5 SSD uses the very latest NVMe PCIe Gen5 x4 interface that pumps away at up to 12GB/sec (12,000MB/sec) sequential reads and up to 11GB/sec (11,000MB/sec) sequential writes. If you are an enthusiast, professional, or content creator who wants some of the fastest SSD storage you can get, you've got it here with the CS3150 Gen5 SSD.

PNY will have 1TB and 2TB capacities of its new CS3150 Gen5 SSD, with multiple models: black, white, and black with RGB lighting. The new revolutionary heatsinks have an innovative design with two ultra-quiet fans that will not only have kick-ass heat dissipation but keep it cooler and keep those huge transfer speeds at their peak. The hotter the SSD gets, the slower it will get... you don't want to lose that huge 12GB/sec speed, so the dual-fan cooler will take care of that as much as it can.

ASUS has a super limited edition ROG Maximus Z790 Hero EVA-02 Edition, which is inspired by the popular anime series "Evangelion,"... but the company has misprinted the word, spelling it "Evangenlion"... oops, big oops.

ASUS recently launched the new motherboard alongside a family of EVA-02 series PC components, with the $700+ motherboard out in the wild and consumers finding the typo sitting on their motherboard forever. The other ASUS products in the EVA-02 series of PC components include the Evangelion motherboard, graphics card, power supplies, and even a wicked-styled case.

The typo on the board is to the left of the display on the motherboard and to the left of the CPU socket. It will be covered up once the motherboard is installed into the case and the rear fan is installed... but that's not good enough. How many people did this motherboard go through before it was manufactured and shipped to consumers? 10? 15? 30 people? Sheesh.

We've been following Seagate's HAMR or Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording storage tech for a while now, with this new take on the traditional HDD created to deliver customers the highest capacity and efficiency. 32TB and 40TB on a single affordable drive is impressive.

The Seagate Exos CORVAULT 4U106 system, which offers mass data storage in the petabyte realm in a single solution that can improve total rack power efficiency by up to 30%, according to Seagate, makes use of the company's high-capacity Exos hard drives. And yes, this includes a 2.5 Petabyte configuration with Seagate HAMR storage.

Seagate Exos hard drives feature self-healing technology like Autonomous Drive Regeneration (ADR) and Advanced Distributed Autonomic Protection Technology (ADAPT) to reduce downtime, maintenance, and, in turn, carbon footprints and e-waste.

Samsung's new Galaxy Book 4 laptop has just smiled for the camera, with a new leak from WindowsReport teasing a new family of Galaxy Book 4 laptops that are around the corner.

Samsung will offer a wide range of Galaxy Book 4 configurations, using the new 1st Gen Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" CPU or the 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" CPUs. They'll also feature discrete GPUs from NVIDIA, right up to the GeForce RTX 4070 8GB Laptop GPU. Samsung will have its new AI PCs being pushed with the Meteor Lake CPU-powered Galaxy Book 4 laptops, too.

We can expect Samsung to have the Galaxy Book 4, Galaxy Book 4 360, Galaxy Book 4 Pro, Galaxy Book 4 Pro 360, and finally, the Galaxy Book 4 Ultra. Definitely not a confusing naming scheme -- especially with the Galaxy Book 4, 4 Pro, 4 Pro 360 -- with a split between different CPUs and other hardware changes between models.

ENERMAX is known for creating high-performance PC components and hardware, and over the years, we've reviewed and been impressed by several of the company's power supplies, coolers, and cases. Today, we've got word of two new arrivals into the latter category with the new ENERMAX MS31 mid-tower and MS21 mini-tower cases.

Available in both black and white, these new cases from ENERMAX are designed for maximum airflow and lower noise levels, which is why they feature full mesh front panels alongside 4 pre-installed 120mm ARGB PWM fans. From there, the cooling potential only increases with the larger MS31 mid-tower case able to accommodate up to 11 fans, including those on a massive 420mm AIO CPU cooler in the front.

Although the MS21 mini-tower case is smaller and created for those looking for a more compact PC build, it can still support up to 8 fans, including those on a 360mm AIO CPU cooler in the front.

MSI's new fleet of AI laptops are on their way, with Intel's new Core Ultra 100H "Meteor Lake" series CPUs starting at $1049.

We are to expect MSI's new AI laptops to arrive in designs between 13.3-inch and 16-inch, with "AI" everywhere... for gamers, content creators, and everyone in between. MSI is getting Intel's new Meteor Lake CPUs into their AI laptops, with new models in their Prestige, Stealth, and Creator Pro range of laptops.

The upcoming MSI Studio laptops have Intel Meteor Lake CPUs, compared to the current fleet that has up to the Intel Core i9-13900H processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU. The first few models of MSI's new AI laptops don't have discrete graphics, but I'm sure that will be changed in the coming months with even more "AI laptops" unveiled by MSI and other laptop makers.

AMD's monster Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX processor, with its 96 cores and 192 threads of CPU power, has been overclocked on AIR cooling, breaking multiple Cinebench world records.

AMD did do some in-house overclocking of its new Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX processor during its announcement, but now the 96-core, 192-thread HEDT CPU has been overclocked by "SAMPSON," the same in-house overclocker at AMD that pushed the original 7995WX scores to new records.

The team is back, with SAMPSON using an ASUS WS TRX50 SAGE motherboard and 4 x 64GB DDR5-6400 memory modules from G.SKILL for a total of 256GB of DDR5 memory sitting alongside the monster-core CPU. The Ryzen Threadripper 7995WX processor has 96 cores and 192 threads with a boost clock of 2.5GHz and a max boost clock of 5.15GHz. There's 384MB of cache and a huge 128 PCIe Gen5 lanes at your disposal. SAMPSON used the 7995WX in Cinebench R15, R20, and R23 benchmarks, setting new records across the board.

Sony is emphasizing quality over quantity with its new live service game initiative.

Alongside its ambitious plan to ship 25 million PlayStation 5 consoles in one year, Sony also has a grand vision to break into the live service games market. The company previously wanted to ship a whopping 12 first-party live service titles by April 2026. This plan was always incredibly zealous (and risky, for that matter), but economic trends and the realities of games development have reduced the high output of live games.

In its recent Q2'23 earnings call with investors, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hiroki Totoki confirms that half of the slate of live service games has been delayed. Sony now plans to release six of the games by FY25, and the other six are currently on the back burner with no estimated launch timing. The reason for this delay comes down to quality, and Sony believes some of the live games just don't live up to expectations.

With more than a decade of experience in developing high quality gaming displays TITAN ARMY has introduced to the world three new products worth considering if you are looking to upgrade your gaming monitor.

The gaming display market has plenty of options for gamers to choose from and now three more displays have been added to the mix. Introducing TITAN ARMY's P27A2R, a 27-inch gaming monitor, the N32SQ Plus, a 32-inch curved gaming monitor, and the P24H2P, a 24-inch gaming monitor. So, what are the differences between these displays, and which should you choose if you were to purchase one? Let's dive into it!

We will start with the P27A2R. As previously stated this particular model is a 27-inch display and it sports a Fast IPS panel with a resolution of 2560x1440. Additionally, the P27A2R can produce 16.7 million colors with 95% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. What else? A beefy 180Hz refresh rate with a 1ms GTG response time with Adaptive Sync technology. Other specifications worth mentioning include; VESA mount support (75x75mm), along with a 6-month replacement and 3-year warranty.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is getting official support for mods, and yes, that's a bit of a surprise for a game this old.

You may recall that The Witcher 3 was released way back in 2015, and with the official mod editor due to come out in 2024, it has taken very nearly a decade to arrive. Which pushes the phrase 'better late than never' to new lengths, of course.

Anyway, regardless of the length of time it has taken to turn up, the editor will allow the modding community - which is still active - to produce some pretty in-depth scenarios, and extensive adventures, hopefully with a minimum of fuss.

Sony shipped a record-breaking 4.9 million PlayStation 5 consoles in its latest Q2 period while also delivering hardware sales revenues to match.

PlayStation 5 sales are on the rise as Sony attempts to meet its ambitious 25 million PS5 shipment target. Current data shows that Sony shipped 4.9 million PS5s in Q2, a new modern console shipment record for a non-holiday quarter. Despite these results, Sony still has to ship over 16 million PS5s in order to hit the goal line.

The new PS5 shipment record is accompanied by strong hardware revenues. In the Q2'23 period, hardware made up the lion's share of total Games & Network Services (G&NS) segment revenues. PlayStation 5 console hardware comprised 30% of total gaming division revenues, or about $1.991 billion when converted in the provided yen-to-USD exchange rates.