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Nintendo Switch pre-orders will open in limited quantity on Friday in New York
Looks like Friday’s hands-on event isn’t the only big bit of Nintendo Switch business going down in New York City this Friday. The gaming giant’s New York store Twitter account just dropped the news that the eagerly anticipated (though barely seen) convertible console will open for pre-orders at the company’s storefront at 9AM that same day. A limited quantity of… Read More
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Training self-driving cars on the streets of Los Santos with GTA V just got easier
The DeepDrive project has made it possible to use Grand Theft Auto to train self-driving cars for some time now. But today, the work is being integrated and open-sourced with OpenAI’s Universe. The collaboration will cut the once day-long setup time down to just 20 minutes. Training AI frameworks on synthetic data is all the rage these days. Large tech companies and startups alike… Read More
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Elon Musk plays Overwatch, thinks storytelling is neglected in modern games
Elon Musk spoke to Y Combinator’s Sam Altman in a sit-down interview last year where he discussed, among other things, his apprehensions about the possible implications of developing advanced AI. But when the interview was over and the camera was still rolling, Altman asked Musk for recommendations about good video games to play. Musk’s immediate response was… Read More
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CyberPowerPC intros VR-ready PC for $499, or $1,100 with Oculus Rift
CyberPowerPC has introduced a new entry-level virtual reality-ready pre-built PC with AMD’s Radeon RX 470 on board for $499 at Best Buy and Amazon. That’s a new low for an off-the-shelf VR-capable configuration, and it’s also available as a bundle with Oculus Rift for $1,099.98 — or exactly what you’d pay if you purchased the two separately. Even if there’s… Read More
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Hackers successfully add games to the NES Classic Edition
The greatest hope of retro gamers and the greatest fear of Nintendo have been met simultaneously: The immensely popular NES Classic Edition has been hacked and its 30-game library augmented with new and even homebrewed titles. Read More
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I rocked out in Rock Band VR at CES and I liked it
VR is a tricky medium to do well, but Harmonix’s upcoming Rock Band VR might just be the perfect fit. The game has always been about making players feel like they’re real rock stars, living in an alternate reality where they chased their dream and actually did master the guitar and make it big. Virtual reality finally gives Rock Band players the chance to feel real stage presence… Read More
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Hands-on with Nvidia’s new 4K HDR-streaming Shield with Android TV
Nvidia’s Shield set-top streaming device got an update at this year’s CES, and it was a big one: The new hardware is 40 percent smaller than the original, with a new Android 7.0 Nougat-based operating system and a redesigned UI that groups games together and just generally organizes things a bit more logically. It also handles 4K HDR content streaming, and boasts the most… Read More
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DeepMind’s updated AlphaGo has been secretly savaging pro players online
Pokémon GO might have been the most talked about “Go” game of 2016, but the world of AI remains fixated on another Go — AlphaGo. Last spring, Go-playing AI AlphaGo made headlines when it defeated world champion Lee Sedol. Now AlphaGo is in the news for another reason. DeepMind’s freak of computing has been anonymously vanquishing the world’s top Go players… Read More
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Razer goes immersive with new in-room gaming projection and 3-screen laptop
Razer, the billion-dollar startup that builds hardware and software for hardcore gaming enthusiasts, is today unveiling two of its latest products aimed at ramping up the immersive gaming experience. And — surprisingly, given how much else we’ve seen in this area this week already at CES — Razer is not launching yet another virtual reality tool. Project Ariana is a… Read More
Latest Crunch Report
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Nvidia’s GeForce Now puts a gaming PC in the cloud
Nvidia today announced the launch of its GeForce Now platform for PCs during its CES keynote tonight. As the company’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang noted during today’s keynote, the majority of PCs in use today aren’t able to play modern games simply because they can’t support modern graphics cards. GeForce Now for PCs will simply these potential gamers to access a… Read More
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Crunch Network
Toymakers are the early adopters pushing AR into the mainstream
One indicator of how the market is apparently more comfortable with AR than it is with its immersive sibling, VR, is that one of its earliest adopters are toymakers. Read More
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You can now register to find out when Super Mario Run hits Android
Nintendo gave Apple a timed exclusive with Super Mario Run, but ‘timed’ means that it was bound to arrive on Android sooner or later. Now, Android users can register in the Google Play Store to get notified when it is actually available, much like iOS users could prior to the game’s launch on Apple’s mobile devices. The Play Store entry for Super Mario Run features a… Read More
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After Super Mario Run, Nintendo plans 2 or 3 new mobile games per year
Super Mario Run may have its detractors, but it’s also managed to rack up nearly 10 million downloads per day in its App Store debut, officially topping 50 million downloads as of Friday. Those numbers, combined with its early revenue generating power, have Nintendo still keen on exploring more in mobile, with plans to release around two or three new mobile games per year beyond… Read More
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Now Snapchat has “Filter Games”
Snapchat wants you to play with your face, not just take pictures of it. New Selfie Lens filter games are starting to appear to users, creating an addicting new Snapchat feature that also inspires competition between friends and could become a powerful ad revenue driver. Snapchat confirms this is the launch of a new, native games feature. Back in March, Snapchat tested a limited run of a… Read More
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Glu Mobile acquires QuizUp in deal valued at $7.5 million
The developers of popular celeb-themed games including Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and Nicki Minaj: The Empire, Glu Mobile, acquired Plain Vanilla Corp., and its mobile social trivia game QuizUp this week, according to an SEC filing. The deal was valued at $7.5 million, including forgiven debt, according to sources familiar with the deal. This is undoubtedly a disappointing fate for the… Read More
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Pokémon Go arrives on the Apple Watch
Following an erroneous report claiming that Niantic’s plans to bring Pokémon Go to the Apple Watch were canceled, the company today put those rumors to rest with more than a mere statement: it has now launched the Apple Watch version of its popular game. The new smartwatch app lets you more easily play Pokémon without having to always pull out your phone. Instead, you can tap to… Read More
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Super Mario Run’s buying population is already declining
Super Mario Run may be the first mobile app to pass 40 million downloads in four days’ time on Apple’s App Store, but the game’s payment model has been controversial for its high price of $10 for the full version and limited free play. This has led to roughly half its audience leaving one-star reviews. Despite these complaints, the game has grabbed a huge percentage of… Read More
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Neurable nets $2 million to build brain-controlled software for AR and VR
As consumers get their first taste of voice-controlled home robots and motion-based virtual realities, a quiet swath of technologists are thinking big picture about what comes after that. The answer has major implications for the way we’ll interact with our devices in the near future. Spoiler alert: We won’t be yelling or waving at them; we’ll be thinking at them. That answer… Read More
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With a bet on diversity, Blizzard reveals Overwatch’s queer character
After months of hinting, Blizzard finally revealed which member of Overwatch’s colorful cast of characters counts themselves part of the LGBTQ community. The much-anticipated reveal came in a seasonal digital comic centered around Tracer, the spritely Londoner with gravity-defying hair who proved to be an early fan favorite and the literal face of the game. The comic… Read More
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