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Square Enix made it clear during its recent financial earnings call that it would be overhauling its development operations, with a bigger focus on multiplatform releases moving forward. As far as actual game releases are concerned, this should have been a huge year thanks to Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. However, it would appear most major releases ‘failed to meet expectations'.
Square Enix and ‘failure to meet expectations' kind of goes hand-in-hand at this point. This has very little to do with the quality of the games themselves and more to do with Square Enix's own sales targets. Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and IO Interactive all also struggled to meet Square Enix's expectations, despite excellent games like HITMAN, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy.
As reported by Bloomberg, during Square Enix's most recent call, it confirmed that recent releases like Final Fantasy 16, Foamstars and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth all failed to meet expected sales targets. Sales of the most recent Final Fantasy titles were hampered in part due to lack of platform availability. Both games are expected to release on PC eventually, with Final Fantasy 16 expected on PC this year. Once both games are more widely available, sales should grow to expected levels.
Foamstars on the other hand is a bit of an odd one. Square Enix made the decision to launch it as a PS+ title. This led to great revenue success in the past for games like Rocket League but the key difference here is that Foamstars is a PlayStation exclusive, while Rocket League was multiplatform. With Foamstars only being available on PlayStation, most interested players would have grabbed it for free via PS+, and any good word of mouth generated won't have helped boost sales across all platforms.
KitGuru Says: While they may not have met sales expectations, both of the most recent Final Fantasy games have been my favourites of the modern era.
The post Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth failed to meet sales expectations first appeared on KitGuru.After acquiring Activision Blizzard in late 2023, Microsoft made the decision to allow Toys for Bob to go independent. At the time, we did not know what this meant for the studio’s future involvment with IP like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. However, the company’s new logo gives us a pretty good hint.
Toys for Bob has updated its official website with a new teaser logo, depicting a Tiki Mask, pretty much in the same design you see throughout the Crash Bandicoot games. Interestingly, the logo is also purple, which some fans are theorising to be a hint towards Spyro.
Toys for Bob is now an independent company. However, the studio has already confirmed that it is in talks with Microsoft to publish its next game. This project has not been officially announced yet, so we still do not have confirmation that the studio still has license to use the Crash or Spyro IPs. However, given the style of the logo, it seems almost certain that the studio will continue developing Crash Bandicoot titles.
Microsoft is holding the next Xbox Games Showcase in June, during which we will get a wave of updates for previously announced titles, as well as many brand new announcements. Toys for Bob could potentially make an appearance during this showcase.
KitGuru Says: Toys for Bob ran the risk of being turned into a fulltime COD support studio under Activision, so I'm glad to see the company going independent. If the studio can continue to make multiplatform Crash and Spyro games, then that would be the cherry on top.
The post Toys For Bob seemingly gearing up for new Crash Bandicoot first appeared on KitGuru.
There is no shortage of good power banks in the market, and every day, we see something new. I recently reviewed the mighty Shargeek 170, which is capable of delivering 170W of output and is one of the most impressive power banks I have used in a long, long time. However, carrying a massive power bank with us at all times is not something that is always ideal for a lot of reasons. Power banks are big and heavy, and can easily take a lot of space in our bags. Sometimes, you need something small enough that fit in your […]
Read full article at https://wccftech.com/review/ugreen-10000-mah-and-5000-mah-magnetic-wireless-charging-power-banks/
We’re expecting Microsoft to officially reveal Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 for an October launch during its Xbox showcase event in June. This is going to be the first Call of Duty title to get a day-one release on Game Pass, something that apparently had Microsoft executives concerned. As a result, it would appear that a shake-up of the current Game Pass tiers is being planned.
According to industry insiders “Shinobi602” and “eXtas1stv”, “there will be changes” to Xbox Game Pass tiers due to the upcoming addition of Call of Duty. It would seem that a mainline COD each year is enough of a value-add for Microsoft to finally consider increasing the price of Game Pass.
Since the service’s launch, Game Pass subscription prices have remained pretty steady. Here in the UK, a Game Pass Ultimate subscription costs £10.99 per month, while a standard Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass subscription is £7.99 per month. Now that Xbox needs to start making back the money it invested in acquiring Activision Blizzard and IP like Call of Duty, we can either expect new tiers for day-one games, or a general price increase to the current tiers.
Microsoft will be announcing its Call of Duty plans for 2024 at the Xbox Games Showcase in June. It is unclear if a new Game Pass structure or pricing scheme will be announced at the same time, or closer to Call of Duty’s launch, around September.
KitGuru Says: It is always a slippery slope when subscription prices rise, as you run the risk of pricing some out. However, with games costing £70 at launch nowadays, Game Pass will remain the vastly cheaper option.
The post Xbox Game Pass tiers may change thanks to Call of Duty first appeared on KitGuru.We’ve known through leaks for a while now that Call of Duty’s next game will be a return to Black Ops, with Treyarch leading development. The game is expected to be officially revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase in June, but the release date may have leaked ahead of time.
According to sources speaking with The Verge, a site with known links to Microsoft employees, Call of Duty is targeting a late October launch this year, rather than early to mid November. According to Insider Gaming, the release date will more specifically fall on the 25th of October.
This year’s Call of Duty will be the first released after Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We’ve already seen the impact Activision’s revenue has brought to the Xbox business as a whole. Microsoft will be banking on this year’s Call of Duty also being a big driver for Game Pass subscriptions, as it will be the first new game in the series to launch day-one on the service.
Microsoft is holding the Xbox Games Showcase on the 9th of June, with a main show filled with game announcements set to be immediately followed by a gameplay deep dive stream for a yet-to-be-announced game. It is believed that this game will be Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
KitGuru Says: With this year's Call of Duty coming to Game Pass, it opens the door for many lapsed players to re-join and more importantly, get them into the latest version of the game at a lower cost.
The post Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 tipped for October launch first appeared on KitGuru.
Over the past few years, display refresh rates have significantly increased. Currently, the fastest monitor available on the market offers a 540Hz refresh rate, but faster panels are already in the works, namely a 4K panel with a 1000Hz refresh rate from TCL CSOT.
The Asus ROG Swift Pro PG248QP currently holds the title for the highest refresh rate monitor available, featuring a massive 540Hz refresh rate on its 24-inch FullHD display. However, the stakes were raised when TCL unveiled a prototype PC display this week, claiming it almost doubles the refresh rate of the Asus ROG monitor.
4K 1000Hz being shown off at #DisplayWeek2024 by TCL CSOT pic.twitter.com/xc2qsYocxX
— Blur Busters (@BlurBusters) May 15, 2024
According to BlurBusters, who was at the DisplayWeek 2024 in San Jose, California, a TCL subsidiary, TCL CSOT, showcased a prototype monitor with an astounding 1000Hz refresh rate. What's even more impressive is that TCL CSOT stated the display was operating at 4K resolution, defying expectations that a monitor with a 1000Hz refresh rate would debut at a lower resolution.
Although details about this ground-breaking monitor are scarce, Blur Busters' photos show a curved screen with an ultrawide aspect ratio. It was also confirmed in a follow-up post that the monitor featured an LCD panel.
KitGuru says: Have you ever imagined yourself playing a game on a 1000Hz display? Do you think the difference will be very noticeable when changing from 540Hz to 1000Hz?
The post World’s first 1000Hz 4K display revealed at DisplayWeek 2024 first appeared on KitGuru.The Acer Predator Orion X should already be familiar to our readers, as we presented a showcase of this small form-factor PC at the end of last year. Today we are back with a full review of the system however, and we are assessing the model that is on sale here in the UK. That means it is packing an i9-13900KS CPU, RTX 4080 GPU, 32GB of DDR5 memory and two 1TB SSDs.
If you caught our showcase at the end of the year, you will know the sample we were sent was an early prototype with RTX 4090 graphics, so it wasn't fully representative of the system that UK buyers can get their hands on via Currys for £3299 (reduced from £3799). The system we are reviewing today, however, is a final retail model of the Acer Predator Orion X, the exact same if you went and bought one yourself, so we can give it a full technical analysis.
Specification:
At its core, the Acer Predator Orion X is a small-form factor mini PC with a total chassis volume of 15.4L, so while it's not quite as compact as a console, it's a relatively small unit as gaming PCs go. It's using a custom-made dual-chamber case that you can access by lifting the levers on the front panel, and then both side panels pop out and can be lifted away.
The right-hand side (or Zone 1, as Acer calls it) is home to the motherboard, CPU, memory, storage and power supply, while a PCIe riser cable is used to connect to the graphics card on the other side of the case in Zone 2. There is also a third Zone but this only gives access to the top panel and the AIO liquid cooler's screws, so it's not that useful.
Starting in Zone 1 then, Acer has fitted an ITX Z790 motherboard, though that's the only details shared on the spec sheet. It seems to be a custom job designed for the Orion X and has its own custom Acer BIOS, but who the actual manufacturer is, I'm not sure, and it certainly looks fairly basic on first impressions. An i9-13900KS CPU is plugged into the board, which is technically now a last-gen part, but still offers eight Raptor Lake P-cores and sixteen E-cores, though we take a closer look at performance later in the video. That CPU is cooled by a compact 240mm AIO, with the fans set to exhaust out of the roof, so it'll be interesting to see how it deals with the heat of the 13900KS.
Memory also appears to be custom for this system, with 32GB of DDR5, clocked at 5600MT/s, bearing the Predator logo. There's also two internal M.2 slots, but both are occupied by 1TB Micron MTFDKBA1T0TFK-1BC15ABYY PCIe Gen3 SSDs. Just 2TB in a system that costs over three grand feels a little cheap to me, as does the fact these are only Gen3 SSDs when Gen5 drives are now well established. If you want to add more storage however, there is a removable hot-swap enclosure found in the front panel, which users can open and install another M.2 SSD, though it is empty by default – but I think that's a nifty inclusion.
Over in Zone 2, the only component is the graphics card, an RTX 4080 (non-Super) that again looks custom-made for the Predator Orion X. It's a triple-fan and triple-slot unit, though it runs at a stock speed of 2505MHz, so hasn't been factory overclocked. That's all powered by the compact 850W PSU, and again we have no details on it other than the fact that it is an 80 Plus Gold SFX unit, which should be fine for this spec.
Overall port selection is quite basic, too. There's a total of five full-size USB ports on the rear, and one Type-C that's USB 3.2 Gen 2X2, alongside Ethernet and audio jacks, but that's it round the back. On the front panel there's another Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2X2 and one 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, alongside audio and mic jacks.
RGB lighting can also be found on the front panel, on the CPU block and with the liquid cooler's fans, and this can all be synchronised using the PredatorSense app that comes pre-installed.
The post Acer Predator Orion X Prebuilt Review (13900KS + 4080) first appeared on KitGuru.With a surge in interest in post-apocalyptic fiction after the success of the Fallout TV series, no one was surprised to see Epic Games partnering with Microsoft/Bethesda to do a crossover in the Fortnite universe. It seems that Fallout will be one of the major crossover events for Season 3, which is just around the corner.
Epic Games teased fans with a tweet featuring a Brotherhood of Steel member in iconic Fallout power armour gazing through smoke clouds. The image also hints at a new point of interest, possibly a refinery.
While we don't know specifics about the type of content and cosmetics this collaboration will bring, it's almost certain that a Brotherhood of Steel skin will be part of it. Another skin that would be a perfect fit for Fortnite would be the blue and yellow Vaultec suit.
Rumours and data leaks have strongly suggested an apocalyptic theme for Season 3, making this Fallout crossover a perfect fit. With Fortnite Season 2 scheduled to conclude on May 24th, Season 3 will likely kick off on the same day.
KitGuru says: Do you play Fortnite? What do you expect from this collaboration with Fallout?
The post Fallout is coming to Fortnite first appeared on KitGuru.Ghost of Tsushima has finally arrived on PC, and as expected, it's a success. With a peak concurrent player count of over 77,000, it's already PlayStation's most successful single-player game to launch on Steam.
Following its debut on Steam on May 16th in its Director's Cut form, Ghost of Tsushima rapidly gained traction and outpaced previous PlayStation PC ports. Despite Helldivers 2 being the most successful PlayStation release on PC, with 458,709 concurrent players at its peak, Ghost of Tsushima managed to outshine all other single-player titles that Sony has published on PC so far.
This past weekend, Ghost of Tsushima peaked at 77,154 concurrent players, surpassing God of War's 73,529 players at its peak and Marvel's Spider-Man's 66,436 high. Other former PlayStation exclusives that came to Steam include Horizon Zero Dawn (peaked at 56,557 players), Horizon Forbidden West (40,462 players), and The Last of Us Part 1 (36,496 players).
At the time of writing, the game has almost 8,600 reviews on Steam, of which 88% are positive.
KitGuru says: Have you already tried Ghost of Tsushima on PC? How has your experience been with the game?
The post Ghost of Tsushima PC launch breaks PlayStation records first appeared on KitGuru.
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