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'Last of Us' to hit PS4 as physical, digital release with 'enhanced graphics'

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 Mar 2014 11:39

'Last of Us' to hit PS4 as physical, digital release with 'enhanced graphics' PlayStation's Turkey division has confirmed that "The Last of Us" is headed to the PlayStation 4 soon as a physical and digital release with 'enhanced graphics.'

VP Sercan Sulun made the comments to Turkish gaming site Multiplayer, which was then translated by Neogaf.

Reads the translation: "Sequel is not coming right now as far as I know, but I can say that [the] first game will be released this summer for PS4 as a physical and digital copy with enhanced graphics." Sulun had been asked if there was plans for a sequel.

The game was released for PS3 in June of last year, and has seen critical and commercial success. The game has been rumored to be one of the first PlayStation Now titles so a physical PS4 release does not seem to make too much sense, so take Sulun's comments with a grain of salt.




AfterDawn: News

Facebook: We will not be changing Oculus branding

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 Mar 2014 11:15

Facebook: We will not be changing Oculus branding Facebook has denied a recent report that the social network behemoth will be re-branding the Oculus Rift and interface with its own Facebook branding.

Earlier this week, following the $2 billion acquisition, the NYTimes wrote, "According to a person involved in the deal who was not allowed to speak publicly because he was not authorized by either company, Facebook eventually plans to redesign the Oculus hardware and rebrand it with a Facebook interface and logo."

Facebook has said this is just not true "and not in the spirit of our relationship [with Oculus]."

The company has already said it will let Oculus operate independently, exactly like it allows Instagram to do, and will do for its $19 billion acquisition, WhatsApp, as well. Facebook will certainly fund additional R&D, and help with talent hiring along with additional marketing.




AfterDawn: News

Microsoft would like to allow digital game loaning in the future for Xbox One titles

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 Mar 2014 10:47

Microsoft would like to allow digital game loaning in the future for Xbox One titles Microsoft Xbox head Phil Spencer has confirmed that the company is looking to enhance the Xbox One's digital marketplace with the ability to have gamers loan/gift their digital titles.

Speaking during the 2014 GDC event last week, Spencer noted: "We believe in a digital future on our box. On the digital space, and the things that we've talked about, what that opens up...like we understand what games you own and who you are and how you move around and who you might want to loan rights to your games or gift your games to. We totally believe in that future. And any other marketplace you play in, these kind of mechanisms are out there."

Microsoft would not be the first with such initiatives. Steam has allowed gifting for some time and also has a "Family Sharing" service that lets families and households play each other's games and save progress in their cloud servers.

Before its launch of the Xbox One, Microsoft had promised a similar feature which would have allowed users to share their games with up to 10 others, but the decision was reversed at the last moment.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Supercell's latest 'Boom Beach' now available for iOS

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 Mar 2014 10:28

Supercell's latest 'Boom Beach' now available for iOS Supercell, best known for its massive hit "Clash of Clans," has made its latest game, "Boom Beach" available for download around the globe today.

Apple announced the exclusivity of the game with a Tweet earlier in the week.

The game, as described by Supercell: "Storm the beach and win the day! Boom Beach is a combat strategy game where you fight an epic war against the evil Blackguard. Take your expeditionary force to beautiful paradise islands invaded by the enemy. Fight for every beachhead, free enslaved islanders and explore the uncharted archipelago. The fight becomes a race to harness the ancient powers hidden on the islands. Are you ready for the BOOM?"

Supercell had made the game available via a soft launch in Canada in November of last year. It is unclear when it will make it to Android or other platforms.





AfterDawn: News

The high-end Nvidia Titan Z GPU to cost $2999, include two Kepler GPUs

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 Mar 2014 10:15

The high-end Nvidia Titan Z GPU to cost $2999, include two Kepler GPUs Nvidia has reached new levels of technological superiority with its Titan Z GPU, but that kind of power comes with a steep price tag.

The card has 5760 cores, two Kepler-based GPUs and 12GB VRAM.

Nvidia says the video card can produce 5K content without issue (forget 4K, that's old) with support for every game and video intensive program on the market on multiple monitors.

"If you're in desperate need of a supercomputer that you can fit under your desk, we have just the card for you," CEO Jen-Hsun said.

The company also says that "unlike traditional dual-GPU cards, Titan Z's twin GPUs are tuned to run at the same clock speed, and with dynamic power balancing. So neither GPU creates a performance bottleneck."




AfterDawn: News

New HTC One (M8) already has Google Play Edition available

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Mar 2014 11:38

New HTC One (M8) already has Google Play Edition available Yesterday, HTC finally, officially, unveiled the all-new HTC One (codename M8), its latest flagship and attempt to stay relevant.

For fans of the hardware that may not be fans of HTC's software, however, Google has come to the rescue and made a Google Play Edition of the device already available.

Unfortunately, the GPe is selling for $699 and won't ship for at least another two weeks but it will run on the latest stock Android without HTC Sense and HTC's other software tweaks and features.

HTC's new One has a 5-inch 1080p display, a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB RAM and dual 4MP UltraPixel cameras on the back.

The old model HTC One GPe has dropped from $599 to $499 following the move.

Get it here.




AfterDawn: News

Twitter adds photo tagging, ability to have 4 photos in one post

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Mar 2014 11:03

Twitter adds photo tagging, ability to have 4 photos in one post Twitter has rolled out two new mobile features for its service, one that it says should make Twitter "more social."

The first is photo tagging, which will allow tweeters to tag people in their photos without using characters. Says Twitter: "Tagging people in a picture makes conversations around photos fun and easy. And tagging doesn't affect character count in the Tweet -- you can tag up to 10 people in a photo and still have all 140 characters at your disposal, making it easier to connect with your friends. If you're the one being tagged, you'll get a notification. You can adjust notifications, as well as who can tag you, in your Settings."

In addition, the second new feature is the ability to add four photos in a single Tweet. Adds the company in their post: "And now, you can also share a series of photos that automatically create a collage. Just tap on a preview to get the full image and slide through the group. The ability to upload multiple photos is starting to roll out today on iPhone, and is coming soon to Android and twitter.com. Whether you're on iPhone, Android or twitter.com, you can view Tweets with multiple photos."

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Notch says no more Minecraft for Oculus Rift following Facebook acquisition

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Mar 2014 10:44

Notch says no more Minecraft for Oculus Rift following Facebook acquisition Markus 'Notch' Persson, the developer behind Minecraft, has killed all plans for bringing the game to the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, following Facebook's $2 billion acquisition of the company.

In his initial Tweet, which was a bit bold, Notch said: "We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus. I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me out."

Notch had just received his developer kit for the VR headset, and was already thinking about creating a new Minecraft experience for it. The developer had even met the company at their headquarters in California.

In his expanded post, Notch added:

Facebook is not a company of grass-roots tech enthusiasts. Facebook is not a game tech company. Facebook has a history of caring about building user numbers, and nothing but building user numbers. People have made games for Facebook platforms before, and while it worked great for a while, they were stuck in a very unfortunate position when Facebook eventually changed the platform to better fit the social experience they were trying to build.

Don't get me wrong, VR is not bad for social. In fact, I think social could become one of the biggest applications of VR. Being able to sit in a virtual living room and see your friend's avatar? Business meetings? Virtual cinemas where you feel like you're actually watching the movie with your friend who is seven time zones away?

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Instagram hits new milestone: 200 million users

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Mar 2014 10:34

Instagram hits new milestone: 200 million users Instagram has proudly boasted a new milestone: 200 million monthly active users.

The service now sees 60 million photos shared per day, with a total of 20 billion shared since launch in 2010.

Facebook has been the beneficiary of strong growth for the photo sharing service. When it acquired the company for $1 billion in 2012, the service only had 30 million active users. 50 million users have joined in just the last six months.

"From documenting a passion for jazz to the protests in Kiev, we're continually surprised and humbled by the moments you share," said Instagram in their post. "The vibrance and diversity of this community has increased as it has grown. Over the past six months, we've seen new communities coming together in cities and towns across the world, whether they be in Guthrie, Oklahoma, or Guatemala City. With January's Worldwide InstaMeet 8, we saw record turnouts of communities coming together to form friendships, explore new places and celebrate creativity in all corners of the globe from New Dehli to New York, Bucharest, Nairobi and beyond."




AfterDawn: News

'Candy Crush' parent King Digital has the worst IPO of 2014

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Mar 2014 9:52

'Candy Crush' parent King Digital has the worst IPO of 2014 King Digital Entertainment, the casual gaming company behind the blockbuster "Candy Crush Saga" has had the worst IPO of 2014, falling 15.5 percent on its first day of being public.

The IPO was the largest since Twitter's in November, and the company was valued at $22.50 per share, a full market capitalization of $6 billion. The price fell to $19 at the close of business today.

Even though the company has over 180 games and has been around since 2003, it is known mainly for Candy Crush. The game, which simply lets users move candy around to line up similar colors for hundreds of different levels, now accounts for over 75 percent of King's overall revenue.

Candy Crush is free to download and sells extra lives, playing time and other add-ons. The game has seen over 500 million downloads across multiple platforms including iOS and Android.

King raised $500 million in the IPO, and unlike other recent tech IPOs, the company has been profitable for some time. For the Q4 2013, the company had revenue of $602 million and the company had an excellent $714.3 million pre-tax profit in 2013. There are major concerns, however, including a "monthly unique players" figure that seems to have already peaked.




AfterDawn: News

Sony will stick with Smartwatch and not Android Wear for upcoming watches (for the time being)

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Mar 2014 10:55

Sony will stick with Smartwatch and not Android Wear for upcoming watches (for the time being) Sony, which has had relatively popular smartwatches for a couple of years, will not be using Google's Android Wear operating system, at least for now.

The company has left the path open to eventually move to Android Wear for its smartwatches, however. Sony Mobile USA boss Ravi Nookala says "We've already invested time and resources on this platform [Smartwatch], and we will continue in that direction."

Sony did send a follow up statement to Nookala's response, stating: "We're excited about the potential of Android Wear to extend the mobile OS experience into wearable devices. While we are currently focused on our in-market wearable offering, including SmartWatch 2, we continue to work closely with Google as a key partner and continue to evaluate opportunities across a number of areas as we extend our SmartWear Experience."

Google unveiled the Android Wear SDK last week and has already signed up Motorola and LG as initial partners. The operating system has integrated Google Now into regular Android/smartwatch notifications.




AfterDawn: News

Rumor squashed: The Xbox One does not have a second 'secret GPU'

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Mar 2014 10:03

Rumor squashed: The Xbox One does not have a second 'secret GPU' Over the past week, one rumor has remained consistent in the Xbox world: that the Xbox One had a second 'secret GPU.'

Microsoft's director of product planning Albert Penello has categorically squashed the rumor, via Twitter and Reddit.

"I thought I had already said something about that. There is no 2nd GPU, there is no stacked GPU," Penello said. "I didn't think [the second GPU rumor] was festering because I thought I'd already commented on it. For some reason the DX12 announce seemed to make it resurface."

The executive was then asked how the new DirectX 12 (DX12) would impact the Xbox One, but he admitted that he was not yet fully versed on the upcoming graphics API. "I know we're continually improving our tools for developers, as we did with Xbox 360, so you'll see consistent performance improvements over time."





AfterDawn: News

Facebook looks forward and purchases Oculus VR, maker of the Oculus Rift, for over $2 billion

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Mar 2014 9:16

Facebook looks forward and purchases Oculus VR, maker of the Oculus Rift, for over $2 billion Facebook has looked to the long-term and will be purchasing Oculus VR for $2 billion, mainly in stock.

The company makes the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset which has just been sent out to developers and is ushering in a new generation of gaming.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, confirmed the deal, which will be $400 million in cash and another 23.1 million shares of Facebook stock. Why did Facebook make the investment? Zuckerberg says:

This is where Oculus comes in. They build virtual reality technology, like the Oculus Rift headset. When you put it on, you enter a completely immersive computer-generated environment, like a game or a movie scene or a place far away. The incredible thing about the technology is that you feel like you're actually present in another place with other people. People who try it say it's different from anything they've ever experienced in their lives.

Oculus's mission is to enable you to experience the impossible. Their technology opens up the possibility of completely new kinds of experiences.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Google signs Glass deal with Oakley, Ray-Ban maker

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 Mar 2014 10:58

Google signs Glass deal with Oakley, Ray-Ban maker Google has announced another major milestone for its Google Glass headwear, a deal with luxury eyewear company Luxottica.

Luxottica is responsible for major brands like Ray-Ban, Oakley and Persol. The company has over 5000 retail stores in the U.S.

Reads Google's post:

When the first eyeglasses appeared in the 13th century, they took off and over the next 700 years, they evolved over and over, with the first bifocals appearing in the 18th century, and the monocle and sunglasses shortly after. Nowadays, glasses are global phenomenon – a reflection of both function and fashion.

We see Glass as the next chapter in this long story. Light, simple and modular, Glass introduces new functionality as your glasses get smarter – but bringing your own style to Glass is just as important. Earlier this year, we launched the Titanium Collection, designed by the Glass team. Between frames, shades, and colors, there are over 40 different ways for Explorers to make Glass their own today... but that's not enough.

Luxottica understands how to build, distribute and sell great products that their clients and consumers love – something we care deeply about at Glass, too. They'll bring design and manufacturing expertise to the mix, and, together, we'll bring even more Glass style choices to our Explorers. In addition, Luxottica's retail and wholesale distribution channels will serve us well when we make Glass available to more people down the road.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

LG reveals another picture of upcoming G smartwatch with Android Wear

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 Mar 2014 10:42

LG reveals another picture of upcoming G smartwatch with Android Wear LG, one of the first Google partners to announce a smartwatch with Android Wear, has revealed another photo of the upcoming G watch.

The photo shows the device (unlike the 'mysterious' teaser that really only showed the shape), which is rectangular in shape and was "developed in close collaboration with Google."

LG has not revealed any specs, but the device certainly does not look as nice as the Moto 360.






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