Game Tech News

This year is Sega’s 60th anniversary, and while the company has long since fallen out of the game console market, it has plenty of nostalgia to mine for this new micro-console craze. Following up its launch of the Genesis Mini, Sega has announced the Game Gear Micro in Japan. This portable game system is much smaller than the original handheld, and it comes in four colors. However, each color only has four games, with no way to add more.

As with all these new micro-consoles, the Game Gear Micro comes with a pre-loaded collection of games with no way to add more. The NES Classic came with 30 games, and the Genesis Mini had 40. The new Game Gear won’t be anywhere close with a mere four games, but that’s four games for each version of the device. Sega is making the Game Gear Micro in four colors, and each comes with four different games for a total of 16. Even though Sega could easily have loaded all those games on a single handheld, you’ll have to buy all four versions. Here are the variants:

• Black: Out Run, Puyo Puyo 2, Royal Stone, and Sonic the Hedgehog
• Blue: Baku Baku Animal, Gunstar Heroes, Sonic & Tails, and Sylvan Tale
• Yellow: Shining Force Gaiden: Expedition to the Land of Evil, Shining Force Gaiden II: The Sword of Hajya, Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict, and Nazopuyo Aruru no Ru
• Red: Columns, Game Gear Shinobi, Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible Special, and Revelations: The Demon Slayer

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Unreal Engine 5 - Official PlayStation 5 Real-Time Tech Demo Trailer

First look at the PlayStation 5 next gen is here, with this Unreal Engine 5 real-time demo.

Sony's new PS5 console looks a lot like a router, some social-media users said. And there were other creative comparisons.

Sony revealed its super sleek PlayStation 5 console on Thursday, and images of the new gaming system quickly spread on social media. The highly anticipated device is tall and thin, and white on the front and back, with blue lights and black accents on the sides. And until gamers can get their hands on the PS5, they can at least critique the new look.

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The buzz around upcoming game consoles from Sony and Microsoft has been building steadily, and KFC — yes, that KFC — has evidently decided this is the time to shake up the company’s recipe for success.
KFC has declared that it will launch a game console on November 12, 2020, with a declaration on Twitter. Behold the KFConsole:

The future of gaming is here.
Introducing the KFConsole. #PowerYourHunger pic.twitter.com/ssUrX41Ab1
— KFC Gaming (@kfcgaming) June 12, 2020

KFC’s Brand Engagement Manager for the UK and Ireland, Josh Benge, released the following statement:

At KFC we’ve been continually astounded by the gaming community’s amazing response to everything we’ve done and we had to give back with something truly incredible. We wanted to give gamers the best gaming experience on the market, with the convenience of a home chicken supply and so the the KFConsole was born. We can’t wait to get into our fans’ hands later this year.

The original PR references an “11GHz Zinger processor,” and I really want to tell you that’s absolute proof that this is a joke — except companies have been known to play fast and loose with clocks and core counts before, with bird-brained references to “128-bit” consoles during the PS2 and Dreamcast era.

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Chrome memory usage should decrease as Google adopts technology already in Microsoft Edge for Windows 10.

Microsoft's Edge team added the memory improvement with Windows 10's May update, Edge Principal Product Manager Kim Denny said this week. The benefits are enabled by a modernization of Windows 10's system for managing memory.

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A few days ago, I sat down to write a story about how excited I to see what Star Wars: Squadrons would bring to the table. Then, I put the story down. EA hadn’t shown enough of the game that I felt confident writing about it, which says something about exactly how starfighter combat lovers have been treated the past 20 years or so.

In the early days of the 3D era, it seemed as if small-ship combat had a bright future. Games like Wing Commander and Descent: Freespace created compelling worlds, while the X-Wing series of games told original stories in the Star Wars universe. Then, it all died. The Rogue Squadron games carried on some starfighter-based storytelling after the X-Wing series ended, but those games played quite differently from the titles of the earlier era, even if they were superficially similar. Eventually, those ended too. Story-driven, AAA, starfighter-focused space combat games vanished from the market. Games like No Man’s Sky are as close as it gets, and having played both, the resemblance is modest.

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The ever-popular Sims computer game is making the jump to TV, with a new reality show called Spark'd airing July 17 on TBS. Over the four-episode series, 12 contestants will play the life-simulation game, completing timed challenges and presenting creative characters in a unique, coherent Sims story to a panel of celebrity judges. The last one standing wins $100,000.

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Game publisher 2K is leading the way into the next console generation with a higher $70 price tag for NBA 2K21. All AAA games may adopt this higher price, but that’s nothing compared with this copy of Super Mario Bros. It’s the most expensive video game in history, having just sold for a whopping $114,000 at auction.

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The Xbox One now carries two fewer members of its family, with Microsoft announcing it will discontinue both the Xbox One X and the Xbox One S Digital Edition. The latter didn’t have a disk drive, while the former was bound to be canceled as we got closer to launch. I don’t think there’s much chance that the Xbox One X would cannibalize sales, but it’s entirely possible that Microsoft is moving very few Xbox One X consoles right now.

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Virtual reality hasn’t exploded in popularity as many expected it would when Oculus revived the dead medium, but it is still growing. Most VR games are designed from the ground up for VR, but a few mainstream titles that are suited to that gameplay style have also added support. Soon, you’ll be able to add Microsoft’s Flight Simulator to the list.

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