Latest News - Page 991

Automaker startup Fisker may have reported a loss of $149 million during Q3 this year but is looking to close out the year well - and continue that momentum throughout 2023. The Ocean SUV will be manufactured in Austria, though production could end up in the United States one day, though that isn't a major priority now.

Before the end of the year, Fisker hopes to manufacture 42,400 Ocean units by the end of 2023 - which will help the automaker take a dent out of the 62,000 reservations already placed for the vehicle. If done properly, the automaker hopes upwards of 50,000 models can be manufactured if it ramps up production properly.

More than 300 Ocean units will be manufactured during Q2, 8,000 during Q2, 15,000 in Q3, and whatever it can during Q4.

The Mercedes-Benz fully-electric EQE Sedan will have a starting price tag of $74,900 for the United States auto market. The German automaker featured a "purpose design" that is sporty and still borrows elements of the Mercedes-EQ lineup.

Mercedes unveiled the EQE sedan more than a year ago, an electric car with a 90.6 kWh battery that delivers 305 miles of drive range. Drivers can use the Mercedes me Charge to pay for charging at a nationwide network of charging stations.

The entry trim includes the MBUX EQ navigation services including navigation with electric intelligence. There is a 12.3" driver display and 12.8" OLED multimedia touchscreen portrait display - the driver can access applications on the home screen.

Sony reported noticeable drops for PlayStation gaming in Q2 due to a weakening yen and tough comparisons against last year.

Sony's Q2 FY2022 period saw sharp declines in nearly all relevant metrics.

Our analysis is presented in USD based on foreign exchange rates published in Sony's earnings documents. These numbers reflect the weakening yen and other major factors including tough comparisons (Sony's Q2 FY2021 period delivered strong results with record revenues of $5.86 billion).

Sony says that third-party juggernauts like Call of Duty will help prop up its earnings after noticeable Q2 losses.

Sony's latest Q2 earnings report is full of misses for the PlayStation giant. Operating profit was down 59% to $305 million, game sales were down nearly 14 million units, and total segment revenues were down by $647 million over last year. MAUs are down 1 million users, punctuating steep declines in MAUs from Q3 2021's previous high point, and PlayStation Plus subscribers dropped by nearly 2 million.

Company CFO Hiroki Totoki says that content has been sluggish through Q2, and that third-party games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 will help buoy the PlayStation brand against these forecast and sales misses. Totoki also expresses confidence in big first-party games like God of War Ragnarok, however these first-party titles have historically sold significantly less than their third-party counterparts.

The PS5's recent price increase has not slowed consumer demand, Sony corporate has said.

To combat inflation and a weaker yen, Sony has raised the PlayStation 5's retail price across all major worldwide regions except in the United States. This cost hike hasn't deterred gamers, though, and Sony indicates that consumers are still very eager to buy PS5 hardware. In fact, Sony highlighted that the PS5 sold 100,000 units in just 17.5 hours in the US, but this region wasn't affected by the price hike.

What about other countries? According to Sony, the PS5's price jump isn't affecting demand. The company says it will have an ample stockpile of 18 million shipments to meet consumer demand over this fiscal year, and that 6.5 million PS5s were produced in Q2 alone.

Capcom has updated its best-selling games list and reveals strong growth for its best-selling video game brands.

As part of its Q2 2022 earnings results, Capcom has refreshed the sales figures for major franchises like Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and Street Fighter--all of which saw a healthy uptick in combined physical and digital unit sales.

According to the figures, Capcom sold a total of 9.6 million games during the Q2 period, and these top game series made up basically all of the game sales.

Hideo Kojima reiterates that his new game will establish a "new medium," and his words reinforce predictions that we had made years ago.

Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima is working on multiple new games right now. One of them should be Death Stranding 2. There's also a new project called Overdose that stars Margaret Qualley. Then there's a game that Kojima is making for Xbox, which is sad to be a cloud-based experience. It's unknown if the cloud game and Overdose are one and the same.

Whatever the case, Kojima has been ramping up cryptic marketing teasers for one of these new projects, including images of confirmed actresses that will star in the game. Elle Fanning was previously announced as a star in one of Kojima's new projects, and now Kojima has recently confirmed that Deadpool 2 actress Shioli Kutsuna will also star alongside Fanning.

Ex-Dragon Age and Anthem executive producer Mark Darrah has a particular opinion on the free-to-play microtransaction market--he believes it is "doomed to collapse."

Before departing in 2020, Mark Darrah had spent 23 years with BioWare. In those two decades, Darrah saw EA shift from a game-centric company to a service-first publisher with an eye for billion-dollar microtransactions. Now EA is a behemoth of live services with Apex and Ultimate Team pulling in billions of dollars, however back in the Dragon Age heyday, they were mostly trying to sell games. Over the years, Darrah has also seen microtransactions added into premium games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and BioWare's failed Anthem action IP.

But what about the free-to-play market, which is by far the largest sector in the games industry? According to Darrah, the billion-dollar house of cards will eventually tumble down.

NVIDIA's new monster GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card is now in the wild, with high-end custom designs from the likes of GALAX and its new flagship GeForce RTX 4090 HOF (Hall of Fame) graphics card now teased in all of its PCB nudity.

The new GALAX GeForce RTX 4090 HOF graphics card features power-hungry dual 16-pin power connectors, while inside of the card itself we have the usual AD102-300 GPU with its 16384 CUDA cores and 24GB of GDDR6X memory clocked at 21Gbps offering 1TB/sec+ of memory bandwidth.

But when it comes to the PCB of this monster new GeForce RTX 4090 HOF, GALAX is using a hefty 28+4 phase VRM which makes it the most powerful RTX 4090 so far. GALAX used a similar design and power delivery system for its Ampere-based flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti HOF (which used a 24+4 phase VRM) but the new GeForce RTX 4090 HOF is another step up from that, big time.

As part of the preparation for season 9 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team continues testing the Porsche 99X Electric Gen3 race car. Professional drivers Pascal Wehrlein and Antonio Felix da Costa have tested the car on multiple race circuits, offering the team feedback on how the all-electric race car handles under pressure.

This is the fourth season Porsche has participated in the FIA Formula E World Championship. Porsche hopes the extensive changes made with the Gen3 car will offer the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team an edge over the competition.

Here is what Florian Modlinger, Director Factory Motorsport Formula E at Porsche, said in a press statement: "The tests over the past few weeks were demanding and challenging, but they allowed us to make some promising pre-season progress. For the most part, we were able to complete our programmes as planned and gained important insights to continue working on our car."

Luxury automaker Bentley has introduced the Bentayga Odyssean Edition, a very limited car featuring a hybrid powertrain. This specific model will be highly exclusive with just 70 units manufactured worldwide.

The Odyssean Edition has a 3.0-liter V6 hybrid with 546 horsepower and 700 newton-meter, along with an 18 kWh battery. This model is exclusively a plug-in hybrid and can drive at least 28 miles in electric-only settings.

The Bentayga can accelerate 0-62 mph in 5.3 seconds, with a vehicle top speed of 158 mph. Drivers have three different E modes available - EV Drive, Hybrid Mode, and Hold Mode - so close control over battery usage can be utilized. Of course, drivers not interested in switching between modes don't have to, as the car can do it automatically.

Eidos Montreal is now free to make a new Deus Ex game, but it has to keep itself afloat first...and that means work-for-hire jobs.

A new Deus Ex game is in development, but it won't be ready for a long time. Sources have told Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that Eidos Montreal is currently in "very, very early" planning stages for a new Deus Ex project. In the meantime Eidos Montreal will need to pull in revenues in between game releases and that means it has to tackle other projects.

A bit ago Square Enix sold Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Eidos' mobile division to Embracer Group for $300 million. This sale included the studios and popular IPs like Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and others. Embracer has given both Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal free rein over these IPs and both studios now have freedom over what projects they work on.

HBO has revealed exactly when in 2023 the new The Last of Us show adaptation will premiere on its HBO Max subscription.

The new dramatic The Last of Us TV show will start airing on January 15, 2023 exclusively on HBO Max, the streamer today announced. The news comes shortly after the service accidentally leaked the air date--which was quickly deleted, but not quick enough to spread across the internet.

The show was produced closely with original series visionary Neil Druckmann at Naughty Dog, the video game studio that developed the 25 million-strong franchise, and Sony's new PlayStation Productions business unit responsible for helping translate its game IPs into feature-length films and TV shows.

Sony's new PlayStation VR2 headset will not play PSVR1 games, which is a pretty big deal for existing VR adopters as well as Sony.

Unlike the PS5, which plays mostly all PS4 games, the new PSVR2 headset will not have backwards compatibility with its forebear. Sony had previously confirmed the PSVR2 would not play any PSVR1 titles and the new headset would flip a reset switch on Sony's sizable virtual reality software market.

A quick glance at the PlayStation Store reveals there are nearly 600 PlayStation VR compatible games, including those that are VR-exclusive and other titles like Tekken and Resident Evil that feature optional PSVR modes. None of these games will be playable on Sony's new headset.

Japanese automaker Toyota unveiled the Trailhunter Concept truck during the 2022 SEMA show in Las Vegas. The Trailhunter is a factory-built overland variant of the company's popular Tundra pickup truck.

The truck concept features a specific suspension setup, skid plates, roof rack, bumpers, lighting, refrigerator, rooftop tent and other features - all designed specifically for Trailhunter - providing support for outdoor enthusiasts.

The factory-built overland trim features a dealer-installed lift kit that will provide an additional 2.6 inches ground clearance. The skid plates will help protect the under carriage if the added lift still is not enough to overcome nature's obstacles.

Ferrari hopes to take over the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2023 with its 499P Le Mans Hypercar.

The 268-horsepower electric motor powers the front wheels - and the vehicle overall has 680 horsepower - the maximum allowed by the race regulations. Ferrari's Formula 1 team will offer insight into the Energy Recovery System (ERS) which is able to recover kinetic energy using the 900-volt battery-powered Brembo brake-by-wire system.

Ferrari chose to race LMH because the Italian automaker can build the 499P completely by itself - Le Mans Daytona h (LMDh) requires a certain number of spec components and a spec chassis to race.

Sony has revealed the final details of its PlayStation VR2 headset, including price, launch date, and available games.

The new PlayStation VR2 headset will cost more than an actual PS5, Sony has announced. The PSVR2 headset will retail for $549.99 / €599.99 / £529.99 / ¥74,980, roughly $50 more than the disc-based PS5 model in North America. For comparison's sake, the original PSVR launched at $399, the same price of a retail PS4 model. The price reflects the headset's significant upgrades, chief of which is removing the snake's mess of cords from the original PSVR--this upgraded model uses a single USB-C cord to connect directly to the PlayStation 5.

The PSVR2 will release on February 23, 2023 but pre-orders will begin later this month on PlayStation's direct storefront. Users can now register for a chance to be invited to pre-order the headset.

Capcom has confirmed that half of its video game sales for the Q2 period were made on PC.

Today Capcom published an English translation of its Q2 Fiscal Year 2022 Q&A session with investors, which revealed some interesting tidbits about the company's presence on PC. According to Capcom management, game sales on PC made up 50% of its unit sales for the Q2 period (July - September 2022).

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on November 1, marking the fourth launch of the world's most powerful operational rocket.

The Falcon Heavy barreled its way to geostationary orbit carrying multiple classified payloads for the US Space Force under a mission directive called USSF-44, and while the payloads are unknown, as well as the orbital destination, we do know that the mission was a success and that Falcon Heavy Heavy's boosters made a safe landing back down on Earth.

For those that don't know, the Falcon Heavy is made up of three modified Falcon 9 first-stage boosters, SpaceX's most-active rocket that has launched on average at least once per week throughout 2022. The most recent launch of the Falcon Heavy marks the first launch of the world's largest operational rocket since June 2019. As I mentioned in a previous article, the Falcon Heavy is made up of three Falcon 9 first-stage boosters, but only two made it back down to Earth as SpaceX designed one of them to ditch into the ocean once it used up all of its propellants.

Kanye West, who officially changed his name to Ye last year, has been banned from Instagram once again following a recent post.

The rapper took to Parler, the upcoming social media that he has expressed heavy interest in purchasing, to announce that Instagram has banned his account for 30 days for a comment he made against Jewish people. Ye explained in his Parler post that he was talking to Russel Simmons, who was telling Ye to "be the bridge and fight white supremacy, while getting out the frustrations that blacks have with their Jewish brothers in a digestible way". Ye replied by saying that he was staying in America and that "I gotta get the Jewish business people to make the contracts fair, or die trying".

Instagram's parent company, Meta, told CBS News that Ye's account has had a restriction placed on it for violating the platform's policies or terms of service. The spokesperson for Meta informed the publication that any account that violates its rules might experience a temporary ban or even restrictions, such as being unable to post, comment, or send direct messages to other accounts.