The Arizona House of Representatives just passed landmark app store legislation in a 31-29 vote on Wednesday that could have far-reaching consequences for Apple and Google and their respective mobile operating systems. From a report: The legislation, a sweeping amendment to Arizona’s existing HB2005 [PDF], prevents app store operators from forcing a developer based in the state to use a preferred…
Tag: consoles
Google’s Stadia Problem? A Video Game Unit That’s Not Googley Enough
The tech giant likes to test and tweak. Stadia promised to change the industry and failed to deliver. From a report: Google’s streaming video game service Stadia had ambitious plans to disrupt the gaming industry, which is dominated by consoles. The tech giant had planned to pack Stadia with original content, announcing two years ago that it was hiring hundreds of…
The Cinemas Now Hiring Out Their Screens To Gamers
Some movie theaters around the world are renting out their screens to gamers to bring in a new revenue stream amid the coronavirus pandemic. The BBC reports: With many cinemas across the country closed due to coronavirus restrictions meaning that they can only open with 50% capacity, and far fewer movies being released to tempt cinemagoers, CGV [South Korea’s largest cinema…
Sony Says It Sold 4.5 Million PlayStation 5 Consoles Last Year and Took a Loss on Sales
Sony shipped more than 4.5 million PlayStation 5s from the console’s Nov. 12 launch to the end of the year, but it took a loss on those sales because the PS5’s “strategic price point” is lower than what it cost to manufacture it. From a report: The disclosure was part of Sony’s quarterly report to investors, delivered in Japan earlier today….
Xbox’s ‘Instant On’ Feature Could Consume 4 Billion kWh By 2025
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The “instant on” feature that’s activated by default on new Xbox Series S/X consoles could suck up a total of 4 billion kWh — the equivalent of a year’s operation for a large power plant — from US owners alone through 2025. That’s according to a preliminary report released this week from…
The Impractical but Indisputable Rise of Retrocomputing
For all the personal technology introduced and popularized in 2020 — upscale fitness bikes, at-home Covid tests, game consoles new and old — the personal computer lands on the list with a bit of a thud. PCs lack the novelty of other gadgets, but they’re practical, essential even, in a year when work, school and social life have come to rely…
UK Politicians Call For ‘Making the Resale of Goods Purchased Using An Automated Bot an Illegal Activity’
Six Scottish National Party (SNP) politicians have put forward a motion for consideration in the UK parliament to prohibit the resale of games consoles and PC components at prices “greatly above” MSRP, and the resale of goods purchased using automated bots to be made illegal in these fair isles. PC Gamer reports: A motion on the “Resale of gaming consoles and…
GameStop Employees Surprised By New Shipment of PS5, Xbox Series X Consoles
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: GameStop employees across the country were caught by surprise on Saturday when the video-game chain suddenly announced new shipments of the highly coveted PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles, sending customers flocking to stores. Workers at the U.S. retailer, speaking to Bloomberg and posting on social media, said they had received little…
‘Cyberpunk 2077’ Players Are Fixing Parts of the Game Before CD Projekt
Cyberpunk 2077 is here in all its glory and pain. On some machines, it’s a visual spectacle pushing the limits of current technology and delivering on the promise of Deus Ex, but open world. On other machines, including last-gen consoles, it’s a unoptimized and barely playable nightmare. Developer CD Projekt Red has said it’s working to improve the game, but fans…
Is Sony Developing a Dual-GPU PS5 Pro?
According to a Sony patent spotted by T3, the console maker may be working on a new PlayStation 5 with two graphics card. From the report: The patent describes a “scalable game console” where “a second GPU [is] communicatively coupled to the first GPU” and that the system is for “home console and cloud gaming” usage. To us here at T3…