Monthly Archives: April 2019
Microsoft Unveils Xbox One S All-Digital Console
Update: While today's announcement of the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition and its $250 USD suggested retail price makes it the cheapest console in the Xbox One family, the $300 USD Xbox One S is regularly on sale at or below the $250 USD price point, leading some to question whether the All-Digital Edition will follow suit to maintain the intention of keeping it the lowest priced console in the Xbox One family.
When reached for comment a Microsoft spokesperson said, "Microsoft sets a suggested retail price, but specific pricing and offers vary by retailer. The suggested retail price for the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition is $50 USD less than Xbox One S and we expect to maintain at least this price difference between the two consoles following launch on May 7.”
Red Dead Online Offers Bonuses in Multiple Modes This Week
Microsoft Announces Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
During Inside Xbox, Microsoft announced Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which will combine Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will be available later this year and will cost $14.99/month.
This new subscription was leaked earlier this month and will save subscribers around $5/month, as both Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live are $9.99/month.
If current subscribers to either Xbox Game Pass or Xbox Live wish to upgrade to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, they will be able to apply the value of their existing subscriptions to this new service.
It's also important to note that this isn't replacing either service, but will be another option for those looking for one, consolidated subscription.
Ghost Watch: Where Do Things Stand After Episode 2?
Update: It turns out we didn't have to wait long for Ghost to return to the fold. Jon's faithful direwolf can be seen sitting quietly in the background while Jon and Sam discuss battle strategy and catch up in "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms."
Apparently actor John Bradley was wrong when he said he didn't have any scenes with Ghost this season, though it's entirely possible the wolf was added in post-production and Bradley didn't realize Ghost was supposed to be in that scene. Hopefully Ghost will have a more substantial role in the following episode as he joins in the massive Battle of Winterfell.
The original story is below:
The Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere featured many long-awaited reunions, and a few instances of major characters meeting for the first time. But one character was conspicuous by their absence - Jon Snow's faithful direwolf Ghost - who is, thankfully, still alive despite being missing from the show since Season 6. While it seems as if Jon's forgotten his four-legged friend, Ghost has remained safe at home in Winterfell while his master has been traveling back and forth across Westeros.
11 Actors Who Accidentally Spoiled Their Own Movies
Doing publicity and press tours is part of the grind for actors in Hollywood. It can be tough to keep hyping up a new project without accidentally giving away any big secrets in the process. Unfortunately, as we've seen many times in recent years, sometimes mistakes are made.
From Samuel L. Jackson to Tom Holland to Darth Vader himself, David Prowse, here are 11 actors who accidentally let slip major spoilers about blockbuster movies.
Tom Holland - Various MCU Movies
Critical Role Kickstarter Hits $10 Million
The Kickstarter campaign for Critical Role's The Legend of Vox Machina animated series has hit yet another major fundraising milestone.
Earlier today, the Kickstarter for what was once just a special but will now be a 10-episode series crossed the $10 million mark and continues to tick upward. It is the most successful movies and TV Kickstarter ever, and is the sixth-most successful Kickstarter of all time as of press time.
The campaign ends this Thursday, April 18 at 11:59 p.m. PT with a livestream featuring Mystery Science Theater 3000's Joel Hodgson. (MST3K had previously been the most successful movie and TV Kickstarter; the show would go on to be picked up by Netflix.
Rey’s Parents Might Be in the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Trailer
The subject of Rey’s parentage has been a mystery since Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and even though Rey admitted “they were nobody” during her emotional conversation with Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi, there are still theories that her parents are people of import, or at least that they’re not filthy junk traders dead in a pauper’s grave, as Adam Driver’s character so eloquently put it. With JJ Abrams returning to direct and co-write Episode IX, there’s the distinct possibility that he’ll revisit the subject, and there’s a key detail in the trailer supporting that.
The shot of a ship flying in the night towards a city bears a striking resemblance to the ship from TFA that belonged to Rey’s parents. Take a look:
Everything We Know About the PlayStation 5 So Far
When Will the PS5 Come Out?
On October 9th, the PlayStation blog revealed the PS5 release window is Q4 2020 (October through December). This led many fans to believe that Sony might reveal the official release date at E3 2020. However, early this year Sony announced it would not be attending E3 2020, making it the second year in a row that it would be skipping one of the biggest events in gaming. Since then, the ESA confirmed E3 2020 was officially canceled due to coronavirus concerns. In March 2020, Sony confirmed COVID-19 will have no impact on the PS5 release date.How Much Will the PS5 Cost?
As of right now, there's been no official word on how much the PS5 will cost. Lead System Architect Mark Cerny told Wired "we will be able to release [the system] at an SRP that will be appealing to gamers in light of its advanced feature set." That doesn't necessarily give us a firm price point but could suggest, depending on the price and availability of the tech used to power the PS5, we could see a more expensive console than this generation, but perhaps not hugely outside the norm. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/19/how-ps5-production-could-be-impacting-its-price-beyond-episode-631"] At a Sony Q3 Earnings call in February 2020, CFO Hiroki Totoki ensured investors a “smooth transition,” as Sony heads into the next console generation. When questioned, he shared that a lot of it would have to do with the PS5 price, which would be a “question of balance.” “What is not very clear or visible, it’s because we are competing in the space. So it’s very difficult to discuss anything about the price at this point of time. And depending upon the price level, we may have to determine the promotion that we are going to deploy and how much cost we are prepared to pay.” Amazon UK added listings related to the PS5 and some games in June 2020. The listings for the console, first noted by Twitter user Wario64, were marked for £599.99 or about $746 USD. When IGN reached out to Amazon, a spokesperson told us the PS5 listings were an error.What Are the PS5's Specs?
Mark Cerny actually divulged quite a bit about what will be under the hood of the PlayStation 5. With an AMD chip at its core, the CPU is created from AMD's third-generation Ryzen line with eight cores of 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture. The chip also "includes a custom unit for 3D audio," which should work through TV speaks and surround sound, with headphone audio being the best option. The PS5's GPU is "a custom variant of Radeon's Navi family" that will allow for hardware-accelerated ray tracing (IGN wrote about what ray tracing is and why you should care). Compared to the Xbox Series X's 12 teraflop GPU, the PS5 GPU features 10.3 teraflops of power. However, Mark Cerny noted it was dangerous to rely on teraflops as the only indicator of performance and explained the PS5's GPU is optimized in other ways that fall outside of its teraflop count. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/18/ps5-deep-dive-reveal"] Sony also confirmed the full PS5 specs, which can be seen below:- CPU: 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz (variable frequency)
- GPU: 10.28 TFLOPs, 36 CUs at 2.23GHz (variable frequency)
- GPU Architecture: Custom RDNA 2
- Memory/Interface: 16GB GDDR6/256-bit
- Memory Bandwidth: 448GB/s
- Internal Storage: Custom 825GB SSD
- IO Throughput: 5.5GB/s (Raw), Typical 8-9GB/s (Compressed)
- Expandable Storage: NVMe SSD Slot
- External Storage: USB HDD Support
- Optical Drive: 4K UHD Blu-ray Drive
- Boot the game in a second
- No load screens
- Design with freedom
- More game on disc and on SSD
- Patch installs go away
What Does PS5's '3D Audio' Mean?
During Sony's GDC-like conference PS5 architect Mark Cerny offered some details on Sony's approach to audio with its next-gen console. Sony will be aiming for "Great Audio for All" with the PS5, with a specific focus on hundreds of advanced sound sources, and presence and locality. The PS5's 3D audio support will help bring a more immersive experience to gaming by providing games with sound that comes from all around the player's location, much like how we hear it in real life. Sony announced it would be releasing an entire line of PS5 accessories, one of which is the Pulse 3D wireless headset. The headset will feature 3D audio and noise-canceling microphones. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=ps5-hardware-accessories&captions=true"]What Are the Confirmed PS5 Games?
Here is the list of confirmed PS5 games (exclusives are bolded, timed exclusives are italicized):- Assassin's Creed Valhalla
- Astro's Playroom
- Battlefield 6
- Bugsnax
- Chivalry 2
- Chorus
- Control
- Cygni: All Guns Blazing
- Death Loop
- Demon's Souls
- Destiny 2
- Destruction AllStars
- DiRT 5
- Dying Light 2
- Fortnite
- Ghostwire Tokyo
- Godfall
- Gods and Monsters
- Goodbye Volcano High
- Gothic Remake
- Gran Turismo 7
- GTA 5
- Hitman 3
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Jett: The Far Shore
- Kena: Bridge of Spirits
- Little Devil Inside
- Madden NFL 21
- MicroMan
- Metal Hellsinger
- Moonray
- NBA 2K21
- nth^0 Infinity Reborn
- Observer System Redux
- Oddworld Soulstorm
- Outriders
- Pragmata
- Project Athia
- Psyhotel
- Quantum Error
- Rainbow Six Quarantine
- Rainbow Six Siege
- Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
- Redo! Enhanced Edition
- Resident Evil 8: Village
- Returnal
- Sackboy: A Big Adventure
- Scarlet Nexus
- Solar Ash
- Soulborn
- Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Stray
- The Lord of the Rings: Gollums
- The Pathless
- The Sims 5
- Tribes of Midgard
- Ultimate Fishing Simulator 2
- Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2
- Warframe
- Watch Dogs: Legion
- WRC 9
PS5 Console Design
The PS5 console design was officially revealed during the PS5 reveal event in June 2020. Unlike previous PlayStation launch consoles, the PS5 console is predominantly white with black accents and features a far less linear shape. It also features a blue light that emits from one end and can be displayed upright or horizontally. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=playstation-5-console-dualsense-and-accessories&captions=true"] What is most visually striking is the size of the console. When compared to the Xbox Series X, current and previous console generations, the PS5 appears to be the biggest yet. Alongside the console, a line of products for the PS5 was shown, including matching a Pulse "3D" wireless headset, DualSense charging station, media remote, and an HD camera.The PS5 DualSense Controller
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=playstation-5-dualsense-controller&captions=true"] Sony officially revealed the PS5 DualSense controller in April 2020. According to the PlayStation blog, it will keep many of the features from the DualShock 4 while bringing new functionality and refinement to the design. Here are some of the features confirmed for the DualSense controller:- Haptic feedback
- Adaptive triggers
- Motion sensor
- Share button replaced with a Create button
- Built-in microphone and integrated speaker
- Headset jack
Does the PS5 Support PSVR?
Good news first: Your existing PlayStation VR hardware will be compatible with the PS5. Just like all your standard PS4 games that will be backward compatible, your PSVR games library should work on the next generation as well. (And that's exciting, particularly considering all the big, upcoming PSVR games we're excited to play.) As for whether a proper PSVR 2.0 headset will launch with the new system or at any point in its release, Cerny and the rest of PlayStation remain mum on the possibility.PS5 Preorders
Unfortunately, there is no PS5 preorder information available. When PS5 preorders go live, our IGN Deals team will be sure to let you know where it's available and how you can get the best deal possible. For more on our PS5 coverage, stay tuned to IGN's weekly PlayStation show, Podcast Beyond! and IGN's new show, Next-Gen Console Watch 2020, for our extended thoughts on the PS5 information. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's News Editor, PlayStation lead, and Beyond! host. Talk to him about what you hope to see in the PS5 on Twitter @jmdornbush.Let’s Pump the Brakes a Little on PS5’s Supposed 8K Graphics
The first concrete news of the next PlayStation came out today, with tantalizing details about what the PS5 is capable of.
There are two big takeaways from Wired's PS5 report. First, there's the tech: we're told of a powerful new 7nm 8-core AMD chip, a custom GPU based on Radeon's upcoming new line of Navi cards, ray-tracing capabilities, and solid-state drives that all but eliminating loading times, and second is backwards compatibility with PS4 and PSVR games. Briefly mentioned in the original report is "support
8K graphics." Does this mean the PS5 will be the first 8K home console? I wouldn't get my hopes up just yet.
Capcom Home Arcade Is a Standalone Unit with 16 Classic Games
Capcom has announced the Capcom Home Arcade, a standalone plug and play unit with a two-player arcade setup that comes with 16 classic games.
Announced by Capcom, this device is comprised of a giant Capcom logo with two sets of sticks and buttons arranged on top. Set to launch on October 25, 2019, this Home Arcade will run you €229.99 (roughly $260) and can be preordered through the Capcom Store.
The unit includes an HDMI output, micro power usb, onboard wi-fi for online leaderboards, and a pair of competition class Sanwa JLF-TP-8YT sticks with 8-way GT-Y directional gates and OBSF buttons. The pre-installed games are from the original Capcom CPS1 and CPS2 arcade ROMs with emulation provided by FB Alpha.