| Ubisoft’s Upcoming PC Games Removed from Steam Posted: 06 Nov 2014 05:25 PM PST Assassin's Creedy Unity, Far Cry4, and The Crew no longer available on Steam Earlier today, PCGamesN noticed that Ubisoft's upcoming games, such as Assassin's Creed Unity, had been removed from Steam's U.K. store. However, it appears that Ubisoft has removed its upcoming games from Steam in the US as well.  In regards to the removal of its titles in the U.K. Ubisoft released a statement to PCGamesN, "We've been in discussions with Valve about Assassin's Creed Unity but for the time being the game is not available via Steam in the UK."
"In the meantime, UK customers wishing to purchase the game digitally can do so by visiting the Uplay store, our retail partners or other digital distributors," the statement continued." While the statement addresses Assassin's Creed Unity in the U.K., it does not explain why this was done and why, later on, all three upcoming games, which includes Far Cry 4 and The Crew, appear to have been pulled from Steam on a global level. So far, both Valve and Ubisoft have yet to release an official statement about when, or if, the games will be available or what will happen to the consumers who have pre-ordered any of the affected games on Steam. The sudden removal of these games is reminiscent of when Electronic Arts decided to pull its games from Steam and make them Origin-exclusive. The result of that meant that fans of the Mass Effect series, for example, would only be able to play Mass Effect 3 on Origin while the first two games are still available on Steam. Assassin's Creed Unity is scheduled to be released next week on November 11, Far Cray 4 on November 18, and The Crew on December 2. Whether or not these titles will be put back on Steam prior to their various launch dates has yet to be revealed. Is this a tactic by Ubisoft to wrangle some kind of deal out of Valve? Or does this mean that all future Ubisoft titles will only be available on Uplay from now on? Let us know what you think in the comments below. Follow Sean on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Minecraft Developer Mojang Officially Owned by Microsoft Posted: 06 Nov 2014 04:03 PM PST  Welcome to the Microsoft fold Mojang
Whether you thought it was a great deal or not, Microsoft has announced that its acquisition of Minecraft developer Mojang is now official. Back in September, it was announced that Microsoft would purchase Mojang for $2.5 billion. A decision that generated some discussions as to whether or not this was a good deal for Microsoft. "It's official, today we welcome Mojang to the Microsoft Studios family, "said Microsoft head of Xbox Phil Spencer on his Twitter account. "We're excited for the possibilities ahead w/the Minecraft community." No sooner was the deal first announced several months back when it was revealed that there was already a version of Minecraft for the Windows Phones being developed. However, following the acquisition announcement, many consumers were concerned that Microsoft owning the popular IP could lead to a discontinuation of support for its various versions on competing platforms. A concern Spencer addressed at the time by saying, "Minecraft is one of the most popular franchises of all time. W are going to maintain Minecraft and its community in all the ways people love today, with a commitment to nurture and grow it long into the future." However, while Microsoft is acquiring the company, the game's creator Markus "Notch" Persson," along with two co-founders of Mojang, are leaving. According to his blog post, Notch explained, "It's not about the money. It's about my sanity." Mojang now joins the list of Microsoft's internal studios which includes 343 Industries, Black Tusk Studios, and Rare. At last count, Minecraft has sold around 54 million units across total across the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Andoid, iOS, and PC platforms. Follow Sean on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Acer Posts a Profit for Third Consecutive Quarter, Hires a New CEO Posted: 06 Nov 2014 12:48 PM PST  What a difference a year makes
This time last year, Acer was reporting a $442.19 million dollar loss along with an operating loss of $86.61 million, which it attributed to the gross margin impact of gearing up for the Windows 8.1 sell in and related management of inventory. Fast forward a year and things are looking up with Acer reporting a third quarter profit after tax (PAT) of $21.38 million along with operating income of $36.27 million. It's the third straight profitable quarter for Acer, which also reported consolidated revenue of $2.82 billion, down 7 percent year-over-year but up 5.3 percent sequentially. And though Acer didn't provide PC shipment data of its own, the company cited IDC's numbers showing a 13.3 percent year-on-year increase. "The achievement in Q3 was the result of a good product mix, new product announcements, and back-to-school demand. In Q4 Acer expects the seasonal promotions among its regions to continue the steady growth momentum," Acer said. Acer also found itself a new CEO. Effective January 1, 2015, Jason Chen will step into the role as Corporate President and CEO. Chen comes to Acer from TSMC where he was serving as the company's senior vice president of Worldwide Sales and Marketing. "Jason is an excellent manager with extensive management experience and proven execution capability. Acer's search committee met with him on several occasions for in-depth dialogue and exchange of views. We consider him to be the ideal executive to lead our transformation with his wealth of new thinking, international perspective, and willingness to face this challenge," Acer Chairman Stan Shih said in a statement. "Moreover, he shares the consensus on our strategy and development for Acer's future." Chen has also held a variety of sales and marketing positions at Intel, where he worked for 14 years. Prior to that, he worked at IBM Taiwan from 1988 to 1991. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| You Won't Pay a Dime for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's 16 Pieces of DLC Posted: 06 Nov 2014 12:00 PM PST  Lots of DLC, and it will all be free!
If anyone in the gaming community deserves a virtual fist bump today, it's Marcin Iwiński, co-founder and joint CEO of CD Projekt Red. In an open letter to gamers, Iwiński revealed that there will be 16 pieces of DLC for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and that each one will be free. It doesn't matter what platform you buy the game for, nor do you have to pre-order the game or pick up a special edition to qualify for the free DLC. "We love games. We love collecting them, playing them, and everything connected to that experience. Every time we reach out for a new release, we expect to be taken care of. We expect support if we encounter any problems, we love updates constantly improving the experience, and we feel really special when we receive free content that gives us more than we initially paid for. It doesn't have to be huge, it can be an awesome skin for a character, or an extra sword, or armor," Iwiński said. "Unfortunately this treatment is quite rare these days. As gamers, we nowadays have to hold on tight to our wallets, as surprisingly right after release, lots of tiny pieces of tempting content materialize with a steep price tag attached. Haven't we just paid a lot of cash for a brand new game?," Iwiński continued. The first two pieces of DLC will drop as a bundle on February 25th and consist of the Temerian Armor Set (horse armor included) and a Beard and Hairstyle Set for Geralt. Following that, two-pack bundles of DLC will be published every week, starting with a new quest and an alternative look for on the game's main characters. Granted, this could be a gimmick consisting of mostly crappy add-ons, but if that's the case, the rapid release schedule will reveal as much soon enough. And since a pre-order isn't required, you can always wait a few weeks to see how things pan out if you're banking on the DLC putting you over the edge. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Foodini 3D Printer Makes Pizza and Other Edible Treats Posted: 06 Nov 2014 11:23 AM PST  No plastic, but lots of carbs
This whole 3D printing thing is expanding rather quickly, don't you think? We've already seen the technology evolve from little plastic trinkets to guns, bullets, makeup, and even food. Yes, we said food, and not those plastic fruit decorations your grandmother puts in a bowl on her living room table. We're talking about the kind you can eat. Meet Foodini, the 3D printer that can print pizza and other edible bits that you can stuff down your gullet. Foodini is similar to a regular 3D printer, if there can be such a thing at this point, but rather than use plastic, it takes ingredients from stainless steel capsules and prepares a meal. "It's the same technology, but with plastics there's just one melting point, whereas with food it's different temperatures, consistencies, and textures," Lynette Kucsma, co-founder of Natural Machines, maker of Foodini, tells CNN. "Also, gravity works a little bit against us, as food doesn't hold the shape as well as plastic." Beyond the novelty factor, the reason for Foodini is to help prepare the more difficult and time consuming portions of making dinner, which in turn the makers hope will encourage more cooking at home and healthier eating. For those who want an entire meal made from Foodini, Natural Machines is working with food manufactures to offer pre-packaged plastic capsules that only need be loaded in the 3D printer. However, they'll be free of preservatives and have a short shelf-life of just five days. At present, Foodini prints out raw food that then needs to be cooked, so there's no built-in E-Z Bake oven feature, though something like that could be introduced in the future. Image Credit: Natural Machines Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Corsair Hydro Series H80i Liquid CPU Cooler, WD Blue 1TB HDD, and More! Posted: 06 Nov 2014 11:05 AM PST |
| Dell Unveils Smart Desk Concept, Sets December 18 Ship Date For 5K Monitor Posted: 06 Nov 2014 09:23 AM PST  Dell this week laid out its vision for the future of workplace productivity, which according to the company will consist in part of 5K Ultra HD monitors and so-called "smart desks" that take advantage of touch functionality. And don't worry that Dell is getting too far ahead of itself -- while readily acknowledging that certain concepts are leaps ahead of the curve, the company knows full well that it must keep making incremental adjustments to existing products to remain competitive.
It's just more fun to look into the future, and like Hewlett-Packard's Sprout PC, Dell's smart desk concept features a two-display setup, only without the projector. Instead, there would be a large touchscreen monitor facing the user as normal, and a second display laying flat on the desk in front of it. When the bottom surface is paired with a vertical display and powered by plug-ins to key ISV applications, Dell says it instinctively separates seeing from doing, putting primary work activities up close to the user while secondary ones are further away. 
"Ten-plus finger touch functions as well as high-performance pen functions and gestures, paired with a new generation of tools naturally located on a horizontal surface, will allow users to easily manipulate digital content without having to step away from the task at hand. This digital desktop allows for multiple desks to be clustered around specific projects, notes that can be searched and shared, and better organization with scaling and stacking of growing content," Dell says. "In fact, any smart desk workspace will allow users to pick up their work session wherever they left it—regardless of location. This means that the creative cycle will never miss a beat." There's no mention of whether Dell intends to turn the concept into a shipping product, though as far as its 5K Ultra HD monitor is concerned, not only will it ship to consumers, but you'll be able to place a pre-order starting November 13, with shipments to follow on December 18. To recap, the UltraSharp 27 is a 27-inch display with a 5120x2880 resolution, which Dell is banking on being a "game changer." Details are still fairly light, though Dell said it will have six USB ports and a media card reader. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Lenovo Posts Another Solid Quarter Despite Drop in Smartphone Sales Posted: 06 Nov 2014 08:22 AM PST  No. 1 PC maker hasn't yet figured out the smartphone market
There aren't many people who would question Lenovo's PC strategy, especially after recently achieving a record high PC market share of nearly 20 percent while also becoming the top PC+tablet supplier. However, Lenovo's finding out that competing in the smartphone sector is perhaps a bit more challenging as sales of mobile devices decreased 6 percent year-over-year to $1.6 billion during the company's second fiscal quarter. That accounted for 13 percent of Lenovo's total revenue for the quarter, which bumped up 7 percent year-over-year to $10.5 billion. Second quarter profit grew even faster with pre-tax income jumping 24 percent year-over-year to $329 million, while earnings grew 19 percent year-over-year to $262 million. The biggest contributor to Lenovo's bottom line continues to be laptop sales. Reaching $5.5 billion in sales during the second quarter, laptop PCs accounted for over half of Lenovo's total revenue. Meanwhile, desktop PC sales grew 6.4 percent year-over-year, compared to an industry decrease of 2.3 percent. Going forward, Lenovo hopes to leverage its recent Motorola Mobility acquisition to become a bigger player in the smartphone market. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| AMD Bumps RAM to 8GB on Radeon R9 290X, Announces Civilization: Beyond Earth Bundle Posted: 06 Nov 2014 06:14 AM PST  Combine bundles for more gaming goodness
The barrage of game bundles continues today with AMD announcing that qualifying purchases of Radeon R9 295X2, R9 290X, or R9 290 graphics cards will be score a free copy of Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth. Purchases must be made from a participating retailer or e-tailer between today and either February 28, 2014, or when AMD's supply of download codes is exhausted, whichever comes first. But wait, it gets better. AMD says you can combine the offer with its Never Settle: Space Edition promotion, meaning even more free games are up for grabs. All three cards mentioned above qualify for the Gold reward tier in the Never Settle bundle, giving you a choice of three additional titles. "I personally have enjoyed more than 500 hours of game time with the Sid Meier's Civilization franchise, and I'm thrilled by what AMD and Firaxis Games have done with the Mantle graphics API to make Beyond Earth a smooth, high-performance marvel," said Roy Taylor, corporate vice president, ISV/IHV Partner Group, AMD. "AMD believes that gamers should freely experience that remarkable development work, and our new Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth promotion offers exactly that as a 'thank you' to new AMD Radeon customers." There's also a new graphics card thrown into the mix. As previously rumored, AMD added an 8GB version of its Radeon R9 290x to its lineup to help with Civilization: Beyond Earth and "next-generation PC games that crave larger GPU frame buffers." The 8GB card will be available sometime this month, though AMD didn't say how much it will cost. That additional on-board memory isn't likely to do much on a Full HD 1080p monitor, but once you get into 4K territory, the larger frame buffer can help with high-resolution textures. The caveat there is that it typically takes two GPUs to game comfortably at 4K. An 8GB card is also a safety of sorts against what tomorrow's games might require. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
