Game Tech News

Microsoft’s Xbox boss Phil Spencer just wanted to post a picture of his nifty swag shelf on Twitter, but he ended up revealing an unreleased prototype. The slim white box atop Spencer’s shelf appears to be the company’s Xbox Cloud Gaming box. Microsoft announced in 2021 that it was planning to release the streaming product, but it was never seen in the flesh. The official Xbox account followed up to confirm that, yes, this is a piece of prototype hardware Spencer probably should have moved before taking the pic.

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This week the GeForce RTX 4090 went on sale, and much to nobody’s surprise they sold out instantly. All eyes now turn to the upcoming RTX 4080. It’ll be available in both 16GB and 12GB varietals, but its performance has so far been a mystery, aside from a vague “2 -4X faster than 3080 Ti” that was teased at the unveiling. Plus, that uplift number is in ray tracing, we assume.
Still, it’d be nice to see some actual numbers, and Nvidia has delivered. We know, they’re from Nvidia, but this is all we have right now. The numbers are designed to show the benefits of DLSS 3, which is a 40-series exclusive. However, the company only shared numbers for four games, highlighting the reality that not many games support Nvidia’s latest technology yet. You can still enjoy its incredible rasterization performance while you wait, though.

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Nvidia has released a new GeForce video card driver, and it comes with an unexpected bonus feature. The new v522.25 update reportedly removes the cryptocurrency hash rate limits placed on many cards to make them less appealing to miners. This could help Nvidia clear stock of older models as it moves forward with launching the spendy GeForce RTX 40-series.

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Activision might be gearing up to customize its game soundtracks for individual players. According to a fresh patent, the developer is exploring the feasibility of using a player’s tastes, behavior, and other factors to tweak the background music in real time.The patent, which was first discovered by eXputer over the weekend, focuses on “dynamically generating and modulating music based on gaming events, player profiles, and/or player reactions.” One part of the system would use machine learning algorithms to gather the information upon which each soundtrack would be based. This information would then feed into another component, called the dynamic music generation module, which would be responsible for producing music specifically for the player in question.

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Netflix has spent the last year confronting the possibility that it might have to actually try to maintain its status as the top video streaming subscription. It’s rolling out a cheaper ad-supported subscription, bundling mobile games, and most recently, opening a new game studio with an eye toward cloud gaming. The company doesn’t intend to make a full-fledged alternative to Xbox Cloud Gaming or GeForce Now, but it hopes streaming games could sweeten the deal and convince subscribers to stick around.

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Pokemon Go's annual Halloween celebration is now underway. The first part of the event runs until Oct. 27 and features a handful of new Pokemon to catch, including Mega Banette and shiny forms of Noibat and Galarian Yamask. On top of that, there are new research tasks to complete and other in-game bonuses to earn.
Here's everything you need to know about this year's Halloween event.

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What's happening

Intel's revenue and profit continued to drop during hard economic times and a years-long effort to reclaim its technology lead, but a layoff and other cost-cutting measures helped buoy the stock.

Why it matters

Intel is trying to bring bring more chipmaking work back to the United States after TSMC in Taiwan and Samsung in South Korea surpassed the company.

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Google has given up on streaming games to you from the cloud, but it’s moving forward with the expansion of Android games for Windows. The previous test of Google Play Games has expanded, giving players in the US and other countries a chance to play mobile games on their computers. The selection of games is very limited, but they do run surprisingly well.

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AMD has finally pulled the wraps off its next-generation RDNA3 GPUs, and they’re aimed at 4K gaming at high frame rates. At a live-streamed eventyesterday, the company unveiled its flagship GPU as well as a slightly cut-down version of the same chip. Both GPUs use its biggest Navi31 die, code-named Plum Bonito. This is the company’s first chiplet design for a GPU, and as rumored, it features a large graphics chiplet die (GCD) flanked by six smaller memory chiplet dies (MCD). The main die houses the actual GPU, with each smaller chip hosting memory controllers and Infinity Cache. The GCD was built using TSMC’s 5nm process, with the MCDs using a more mature 6nm node. Both GPUs will go on sale on Dec. 13 at $999 for the XTX and $899 for the XT.

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Xbox and PC gamers might soon have the option to reduce their machines’ energy consumption—if they can handle the trade-off, that is. Based on a new Xbox Insider Program survey, Microsoft is eyeballing energy-saving game modes that would bump down the frame rate and resolution in exchange for a lighter electricity bill.The survey, first spotted by Windows Central this week, starts innocently enough by asking Insiders about their preferred gaming devices and session lengths.

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