Tag: launch

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VentureBeat

Bugsnax will be free for PlayStation Plus members on PS5 launch

Developer Young Heroes announced today that Bugsnax will be free for PlayStation Plus members when the PlayStation 5 launches November 12. We already knew that the indie game was going to debut alongside the PS5, but now we know that it will be the console’s first PS Plus free title. PS Plus is a subscription service that gives PlayStation users access to online gaming. It also offers a few free game downloads every month. Bugsnax is a game about, well, bugs that are also snacks. If you’re looking for a more in-depth description from me, you’ll be disappointed. But you can watch a new trailer above. It will also be available on PlayStation 4 and PC via the Epic Games Store. If you buy the PS4 version, you’ll be able to upgrade to the PS5 version for free. You can’t solo security COVID-19 game security report: Learn the latest attack trends in gaming. Access here Source linkContinue readingBugsnax will be free for PlayStation Plus members on PS5 launch

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The Verge

Sony boosts PlayStation profits despite looming PS5 launch

Sony’s gaming division is continuing to drive major profits for the company even as the PlayStation 4 era winds down. The company announced PlayStation-related revenue of 507 billion yen (~$4.9 billion) and an operating profit of 105 billion yen (~$1 billion) for its July-September quarter, respective improvements of 52 and 40 percent on the same period a year ago. With the PlayStation 5 set to launch in a couple of weeks, normally you’d expect a significant negative impact on Sony’s books for the previous quarter as the company ramps up manufacturing before it starts to bring in more revenue. Sony does say that its profits were hit by an increase in costs, while revenue was reduced by a predictable decrease in PS4 sales. Higher game software sales and PlayStation Plus subscriptions, however, more than made up the shortfall. Sony’s big PS4 release for the quarter was the open-world samurai adventure Ghost of Tsushima, which came out in July and sold 2.4 million copies in its first three days. Sony says it’s the fastest-selling new IP on the platform. Ghost of Tsushima is now PS4’s fastest selling first-party original IP debut with more than 2.4 million units sold through globally in its first 3 days of sales. Congratulations @SuckerPunchProd, and thank you to fans around the world for taking part in Jin’s journey. pic.twitter.com/6aE4U7YZJH — PlayStation (@PlayStation) July 24, 2020 Sony has now revised its full-year gaming forecast upward slightly, expecting to make 2.6 trillion yen in revenue and 300 billion…Continue readingSony boosts PlayStation profits despite looming PS5 launch

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TechCrunch

NASA and SpaceX set November 14 target date for first operational Crew Dragon launch – TechCrunch

The first mission to officially carry astronauts to the International Space Station for a standard crew rotation is now tentatively set for November 14. NASA provided an updated date for the mission this week, after it shifted from an original planned timeframe of sometime in October. This is the first time that Crew Dragon, SpaceX’s human-rated capsule, will be flown in for an operational ‘shift-change’ mission at the ISS, after its historic Demo-2 mission earlier this year officially concluded its testing phase and certified it for NASA use. This launch will carry three NASA astronauts, including Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and Mike Hopkins, as well as JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi of Japan to the ISS, where they’ll join the crew and carry out regular station operations, including upkeep and upgrades, as well as conducting experiments in partnership with researchers on Earth. They’ll join the existing ISS crew, including Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins. Once they arrive, the full crew size will be seven astronauts, which is up from the usual six, but this will help ensure that more time is spent on research and experimentation vs. the regular duties that the crew takes on just to ensure continued smooth operation of the station. Crew-1 is set to launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, and is targeting a 7:49 PM EST liftoff. That’s subject to change, of course, but for now, mark your calendars. Source linkContinue readingNASA and SpaceX set November 14 target date for first operational Crew Dragon launch – TechCrunch

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The Next Web

Destruction AllStars goes from PS5 launch title to free PS Plus game

Sony today announced that Destruction AllStars, originally intended to be a PlayStation 5 launch title, has instead been delayed. It’ll be released next February, where it’ll be free to PlayStation Plus subscribers for two months. Considering it’s news of yet another game delay, it’s a lot more positive than it sounds. Destruction AllStars, in case you weren’t aware, is a sort of G-rated Twisted Metal, in that involves driving a bunch of cars around an arena and smashing them into each other. The company revealed in a blog post just that it’d delayed the game. It didn’t say whether the game was unfinished, or if there was some other reason. Let’s just say Sony can’t take any shots at Microsoft over delaying a launch title like Halo Infinite, because this is the closest delay I’ve seen to the original release. It did stipulate that if you’d paid the $70 asking preorder cost, you’d receive a full refund. Ordinarily, I’d be concerned that yet another launch title was being delayed. The launch slates for both of the next-gen consoles coming out in a few weeks are very lean, verging on nonexistent. Both consoles seem to be depending on users bringing their previous-generation titles forward onto the new consoles with their talk of graphical boosts — extra ironic in Sony’s case given its traditional stance on backwards compatibility. In this case, however, delaying the game might actually have been a smart move — at least for the game, if not for the console. I…Continue readingDestruction AllStars goes from PS5 launch title to free PS Plus game

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Tech Radar

Nvidia RTX 3070 launch stock could be more plentiful than RTX 3080 or 3090 GPUs

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card could have better stock levels when it launches than the RTX 3080 or 3090, or that’s the latest claim from the rumor mill. As spotted by Wccftech, PC Watch reports that the word from retailers over in Asia is that there will be a ‘considerably larger’ amount of GPUs supplied to shops as part of the initial batch of cards. That’s according to multiple retailers in Tokyo, but obviously – as with any rumor – we have to be very careful about taking that speculation at face value. Naturally, this report is about the Asian-Pacific market, but if supply is beefed up there, you would hope it would be in other major markets, too. That said, the previous buzz on the grapevine regarding stock levels of the RTX 3070 indicates that they could be shaky, at least according to a European retailer (albeit that’s just a single source, Danish outlet Proshop). We should treat both these conflicting rumors with equal caution, really, and only time will tell when the launch kicks off next week on October 29 whether initial inventory levels of the RTX 3070 will indeed be improved compared to the previous Ampere launches. Nvidia delay Fingers crossed that this is the case, though, and it does make some sense that the stock picture should be improved considering that Nvidia specifically delayed the launch by a fortnight to ensure that supply of the GPUs was more plentiful. Although if the situation is only slightly improved,…Continue readingNvidia RTX 3070 launch stock could be more plentiful than RTX 3080 or 3090 GPUs

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Tech Radar

LG Wing with swivelling display to launch on October 28 in India | TechRadar

The LG Wing 5G will release in India next week, just a month after its global launch. The company has started sending invites for its virtual event which is slated for October 28 at 11.30 am. The LG Wing is currently available only in the U.S. on Verizon for $999. LG’s website does state that the Global version will have lesser storage capacity, which could imply a lower price. When directly converted, its price comes up to around Rs 74,000. If its current offers are anything to go by, we could be in for a surprise. LG Wing 5G specs (Image credit: LG) In the sea of foldables and dual-screen concepts, the LG Wing takes a very different approach — a regular phone usually, and a T-shaped dual-display when needed. This is achieved a swivelling hinge that rotates by 90-degrees. This allows for new ways of multi-tasking, where one app can fill the entire bigger screen and another can be used for another app or corresponding controls. Some of the suggested combinations include YouTube + Media controls, GPS + music, gaming + HUD, texting + full-screen keyboard, etc. The primary display is a 6.8-inch P-OLED panel with a 20.5:9 aspect ratio while the secondary display is an almost-square 3.9-inch G-OLED unit. Along with very slim bezels, the primary screen also has no obtrusions, doing away with the notch or a punch-hole. The selfie camera pops up from the top. There’s an optical in-display fingerprint scanner too. The entire package is…Continue readingLG Wing with swivelling display to launch on October 28 in India
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Tech Radar

Apple Glasses leak hints at half-inch Sony OLED microdisplay for 2022 launch

The mysterious Apple Glasses have had a rumored 2022 launch date for months, but Wednesday’s Twitter leak offers some of the first concrete spec details we’ve seen regarding how Apple’s wearable AR displays will be manufactured. Displays expert Ross Young tweeted that he has ‘heard from multiple sources that Apple is pursuing AR/VR glasses using Sony microOLEDs. 0.5″, 1280×960 resolution, 1H’22 intro.’ By ‘Sony microOLEDs,’ Young is referring to Sony’s OLED microdisplay technology, which Sony says is built for AR/VR glasses among other applications. It claims these OLED microdisplays have a 100,000:1 contrast ratio, a response speed of 0.01ms or less, and a wide color gamut.  I should clarify that this is AR only. It will use projection optics inside the glasses.October 22, 2020 Young says the half-an-inch (0.5in) display will have a pixels-per-inch count of over 3000. Considering glasses lenses are typically about two inches wide, this suggests that the OLED microdisplays will be embedded inside of larger lenses, which could limit the field of view of the AR HUD. Perhaps the OLED portion of the lens will be able to project its visual data across the entire lens surface. While the leaker initially said that these displays would be used for AR/VR glasses, he then clarified that Apple planned to use them for its AR-only Glasses design. This tracks with rumors we’ve heard that AR Glasses would launch in 2022, followed by a VR/AR hybrid headset in 2023 or later. Young previously predicted the 2021 iPhone 13 lineup…Continue readingApple Glasses leak hints at half-inch Sony OLED microdisplay for 2022 launch

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Tech Radar

Cyberpunk 2077 will be available at launch for Stadia

Stadia players finally got some good news today: for anyone still using the service, Cyberpunk 2077 will be coming to the Google cloud streaming service on November 19, the same day it launches on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. We’ve known for a while that CD Projekt Red’s highly anticipated sci-fi RPG would be coming to Stadia, given the announcement last year that promised the game would appear on the streaming service “by the end of the year”. At that time, the game was set to launch on other platforms on April 16, but it was delayed twice this year, to its current November 19 release date.  The update brings some much-needed good news for Stadia users, who’ve long complained about the service having a limited game library. In fact, with Google’s promise of 4K HDR quality for those with a stable internet connection of just 35Mbps, Stadia is offering up the ability to play Cyberpunk 2077 in glorious high quality without the need to upgrade to a new console or graphics card. CD Projekt Red broke the news on Twitter that the game had officially gone gold (meaning a physical disc copy has been sent off to be printed for retail), so the release date of November 19 does appear to be final. Regardless of platform, it seems we’re all just over a month away from exploring Night City. Cyberpunk 2077 has gone gold! 📀See you in Night City on November 19th! pic.twitter.com/s6U266Y1fpOctober 5, 2020  We have a city…Continue readingCyberpunk 2077 will be available at launch for Stadia

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Tech Radar

Micromax to launch ‘In’ series of made in India smartphones – a second coming

India is one of the world’s largest consumer of smartphones and is quickly growing as a manufacturer as well. However, no India-based company has contributed to this boom. Micromax aims to rise up to the occasion and compete with the established players. Soon after its inception, Micromax was the biggest smartphone seller by 2015, boasting of a 22% market share when India was just getting warmed up to the concept of smartphones and 4G. This was largely driven by the success of the Canvas series which was known to offer very competitive specs for the price. The same opportunity was seen by Chinese smartphone companies, who quickly entered India with even more competitive offerings, slowly eating into Micromax’s share. Eventually, it was reduced to an insignificant level where the Indian company scaled back its operations.  While Chinese companies now controlling the majority of the smartphone market, recent border tensions reminded India to reduce its dependence on its neighbour. Initiatives like Make in India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat were introduced to encourage companies to increase their local sourcing and investments. Hello everyone, yeh hai meri aur micromax ki ek choti si kahaani. We are ready to comeback, India ke liye. Are you IN for India? #MicromaxIsBack #AatmaNirbharBharat #INMobiles https://t.co/8PvVf4rMnvOctober 16, 2020 Riding on the wave, Micromax confirmed that it will once again launch new smartphones in India later this year. An announcement from the company’s co-founder shed some light on that. Rahul Sharma took to Twitter to share that the company will…Continue readingMicromax to launch ‘In’ series of made in India smartphones – a second coming

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TechCrunch

FAA streamlines commercial launch rules to keep the rockets flying – TechCrunch

The FAA has published its updated rules for commercial space launches and reentries, streamlining and modernizing the large and complicated set of regulations. With rockets launching in greater numbers and variety, and from more providers, it makes sense to get a bit of the red tape out of the way. The rules provide for licensing of rocket launch operators and approval of individual launches and reentry plans, among other things. As you can imagine, such rules must be complex in the first place, more so when they’ve been assembled piecemeal for years to accommodate a quickly moving industry. U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao called the revisions a “historic, comprehensive update.” They consolidate four sets of regulations and unify licensing and safety rules under a single umbrella, while allowing flexibility for different types of operators or operations. According to a press release from the FAA, the new rules allow: A single operator’s license that can be used to support multiple launches or reentries from potentially multiple launch site locations. Early review when applicants submit portions of their license application incrementally. Applicants to negotiate mutually agreeable reduced time frames for submittals and application review periods. Applicants to apply for a safety element approval with a license application, instead of needing to submit a separate application. Additional flexibility on how to demonstrate high consequence event protection. Neighboring operations personnel to stay during launch or reentry in certain circumstances. Ground safety oversight to be scoped to better fit the safety risks and reduce duplicative…Continue readingFAA streamlines commercial launch rules to keep the rockets flying – TechCrunch