Gaming in Austin, state Texas. Reviews, Walkthroughs, News

NetEase Games has announced the establishment of T-Minus Zero Entertainment, a new studio headquartered in Austin, Texas led by Rich Vogel. It is currently developing an online multiplayer-focused third-person action title set in a science-fiction universe.

Last year was a massive one for Hasbro's video game business, with Monopoly Go and Baldur's Gate 3 providing the toy maker with two of its biggest hits in games to date.

Just in case you didn't already know, 2024 is the Year of Shadow. The often-ignored Sonic character is finally getting the spotlight as he prepares to be introduced to the series' movies in December, and becomes a part of Sonic x Shadow Generations in the fall. So much more Shadow stuff has already happened this year with more still to come, starting with a first look at a real-life Dark Rider being showcased at the MotoGP Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas this weekend.

Sega has officially declared 2024 the Year of Shadow in honour of the ultimate lifeform. Sorry Luigi.

Sega has announced Fearless: Year of Shadow, a promotional campaign celebrating Shadow the Hedgehog.

Sega is declaring 2024 the Year of Shadow, with a plethora of events and content planned in honor of the edgy anti-hero of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Shadow the Hedgehog was first introduced in 2001’s Sonic Adventure 2 as an evil doppelganger of the Blue Blur who plotted to destroy the world. In later games, he would evolve into a heroic yet dark figure who assists Sonic and his friends in times of need and is still considered to be one of the most popular Sonic the Hedgehog characters.

At the, fans eagerly awaited their favorite musicians to light up the night, with none other than being a focal point of the excitement for her fans.

As much as Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that layoffs in the company would be seen as a last resort, the cancelation of the self-driving car venture dubbed ‘Project Titan’ and microLED development for the upcoming Apple Watch Ultra variant meant that a lot of employees would either be laid off or relocated. According to the latest report, more than 700 individuals could lose their livelihood, with the information coming to light after Apple filed WARN notices in the state of California.

Embracer Group has sold Borderlands developer Gearbox for $460 million USD, after acquiring the developer for roughly $1.3 billion just over three years ago.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das urges financial vigilance amidst AI cyber threats; panel explores AI ethics; AI system may aid future Alzheimer's drug synthesis; AI powered offline phone revolutionises access for visually impaired- this and more in our daily roundup. Let us take a look.

The developers of space sim Star Citizen are now talking about the 1.0 launch being within sight, some 12 years after the game launched its first crowdfunding drive.

Veterans from the likes of Id Software and Naughty Dog have announced a new triple-A development studio called Emptyvessel.

emptyvessel, a new independent AAA games studio formed of veteran developers based in Austin, Texas, has announced its establishment. The studio’s founding staff has worked on iconic franchises such as DOOM, Quake, Call of Duty, The Last of Us, Borderlands, Tomb Raider, The Callisto Protocol, and more. Its first title is an Unreal Engine-5 powered title that will leverage its experience in the “immersive shooter” space.

Members of actors' union SAG-AFTRA are likely to go on strike against game companies due to broken down negotiations on AI.

Are you a fan of Marilyn Monroe and would like to talk to a very realistic digital version of her? That could now be possible. More than 60 years after her death, Digital Marilyn Monroe - created with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) - made her debut on Friday at the South by Southwest tech conference in Austin, Texas. Appearing via computer screen in a modest black turtleneck sweater and sporting her familiar blonde pixie hairstyle, the iconic actress's digital doppelganger will converse in her familiar breathy voice. She can express emotions, such as smiling in response to a compliment.

Hundreds of Activision quality assurance workers are unionizing with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The union covers approximately 600 Activision central QA workers across three locations: Austin, Texas; Eden Prairie, Minn.; and El Segundo, Calif. This makes the union, called Activision Quality Assurance United — CWA, the largest group of unionized video game workers in the U.S.

One of the longest running digital media and gaming companies, Rooster Teeth, is being shut down after more than 20 years, multiple controversies, several owners, and an unsuccessful rebrand. Rooster Teeth’s general manager announced the shutdown at a company wide meeting on Mar. 6, after parent company Warner Bros. Discovery decided that it didn’t see a path to profitability. Considering the number of scandals over the years, it’s surprising it didn’t happen sooner. Let’s take a look at what happened.

Get ready for a celestial spectacle as NASA extends a warm invitation to theHT public to witness a total solar eclipse on April 8, painting the skies over North America. This rare event will offer residents in 15 states a mesmerizing view of the Moon completely obscuring the Sun, unveiling the Sun's delicate corona.

Pig-butchering scammers have likely stolen more than $75 billion from victims around the world, far more than previously estimated, according to a new study.

On May 31, Robert Morgan’s queasy horror movie Stopmotion will start streaming on Shudder. But hardcore horror fans will have a chance to see the live-action/animation hybrid in theaters early, starting Feb. 23 — and they shouldn’t miss the chance. It’s best experienced in a theater because of the way its chilling visuals, twisty story, and especially gristly, grisly soundscape all set the tone.

Elon Musk's X, the company formerly known as Twitter, is planning to build a new “Trust and Safety center of excellence” in Austin, Texas, to help enforce its content and safety rules. 

It’s been almost 30 years since Lara Croft took her first snowy steps in the mountains of Peru. In about 30 days, PlayStation players will get to re-experience Lara’s first three globe-trotting adventures, with a fresh look and feel in Tomb Raider I-III Remastered on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. 

Climbing a skyscraper for the 25th time in a day quickly erodes the novelty of virtual reality.

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Standing at 6 feet 2 inches (188 centimeters) tall and weighing 300 pounds (136 kilograms), NASA's humanoid robot Valkyrie is an imposing figure. Valkyrie, named after a female figure in Norse mythology and being tested at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, is designed to operate in "degraded or damaged human-engineered environments," like areas hit by natural disasters, according to NASA.

Jenn Wexler’s holiday horror movie The Sacrifice Game is full of surprises. The story, about a group of killers hoping to enact a demonic ritual at an elite boarding school at Christmas, feels a little like a home-invasion thriller, and a little like other period-piece boarding-school horror movies, from the classic Suspiria to Simon Barrett’s Seance. (And coincidentally, a whole lot like 2023 critical darling The Holdovers.)

A new video game is on the horizon, another addition to a selection of titles focused on Marvel heroes like the games and the upcoming from Insomniac Games. and have been confirmed to take place in the same universe, establishing the closest current video game equivalent to the shared worlds represented by Marvel Cinematic Universe films or any given comic continuity. It might be easy to assume that will fall into the same category, but the situation isn't necessarily that simple.

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LOS ANGELES — DECEMBER 7, 2023 — Xsolla, a global video game commerce company,  is excited to announce its partnership with VentureBeat and GamesBeat, a premier source for tech news and events, for its upcoming 2024 Global Tour. The Global 2024 Tour brings an exciting series of events to cities worldwide. 

Tesla began customer deliveries of the Cybertruck on Thursday, bringing to fruition an Elon Musk passion project that the billionaire boasts is stronger than bullets and faster than a Porsche.

Infinity Ward, the original developer of the Call of Duty franchise, is getting bigger. A job ad for an Expert UI Engineer reveals that the company owned by Activision has recently opened a new studio based in Austin, Texas. According to the ad, the new Infinity Ward office will focus on 'creating new and innovative experiences for Call of Duty and create state of the art technology to power them'.

Infinity Ward has opened a new studio in Austin, Texas, which will prioritize work on Call of Duty. A recruitment advertisement on the Activision website searching for an «Expert UI Engineer» confirmed the opening of the new studio, while detailing what exactly the studio will be used to work on. 

Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward just opened a new studio in Austin, Texas.

Most people watching the surreal A24 movie Dream Scenario will think of it as a project tailor-made for Nicolas Cage. It’s exactly the kind of oddity he likes — a character-driven, high-concept story that lets Cage exercise both sides of his acting personality: the quiet, soulful side he brought to films like Leaving Las Vegas andPig, and the manic, shouty one that makes him go viral in films like Mom and Dad or The Wicker Man. It’s hard to imagine Dream Scenario working without Cage. But as writer-director Kristoffer Borgli pointed out after the movie’s secret screening at the 2023 Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, it nearly was made without him — Adam Sandler was originally cast in the lead role.

Infinity Ward has opened a studio in Austin, Texas.

Infinity Ward has opened a «brand new studio» in Austin, Texas.

China's NetEase Games is once again opening new studios, this time around with Blizzard and Riot alum Greg Street (pictured) at the head.

Portalis.AI has emerged from stealth mode to unveil its avatars that are aimed at enhancing interaction and communication between humans and AI.

Demián Rugna’s terrifying possession movie When Evil Lurks — now available for streaming on Shudder — breaks the rules of the subgenre in all sorts of startling ways. For one thing, it isn’t a religious movie at all, even though most exorcism movies are. For another, the victims facing down a demon in his film aren’t struggling with faith, or with something they don’t understand. They all know the rules for dealing with the hideous, bloated creatures that result from demon possession — the encarnado, or as the English subtitles put it, “the rotten.” There’s even a little teaching song about the rotten, presented in the film as something akin to a children’s lullaby.

GM-owned Cruise is halting all self-driving car operations after California’s DMV suspended the company’s state permit to operate the vehicles, citing them as a risk to public safety. 

California’s DMV is suspending Cruise’s permit to test self-driving cars in the state over concerns the vehicles pose a risk to public safety. 

Virtuix, developer of the Omni omni-directional treadmill that lets players walk and run in 360 degrees inside virtual reality, has started taking preorders for Omni One, the consumer version of the Omni.

One of the thrills of the annual Fantastic Fest movie festival in Austin, Texas, is the chance to see back-to-back new and upcoming horror films, with the directors usually on site for Q&As and interviews after screenings. At this year’s Fantastic Fest in September, Polygon spoke to a number of directors whose movies are out now, coming soon, or on the far horizon for release next year. And we asked all of them the same question: “What’s the scariest horror movie you’ve ever seen?” Here’s a roundup of their responses.

James Ohlen believes that multiplayer is the "arch villain" of storytelling, and he should know - he was, after all, game director for the massively multiplayer online title Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Mark Zuckerberg, head honcho of the organisation formerly known as Facebook, has completed his first interview entirely conducted within his company's eponymous Metaverse. And it's sort of impressive, sort of unnerving and sort of meh, all rolled into one.

News that Dishonored 3 is in development at Arkane has been met with trepidation by Arkane fans still reeling after Redfall. 

Mobile game developers and publishers, with hundreds of games and millions of installs, are protesting Unity’s new controversial install-based pricing model by turning off ad monetization services for their games. In an open letter published on Azur Games’ and other company’s blogs, the companies are turning off all ironSource and Unity Ads features, two services Unity offers to developers to monetize their games. They’ll turn these services back on when Unity reviews and reverses its new policy, which has developers across the entire industry upset.

In the wake of its hugely controversial engine pricing changes, Unity has closed a number of its offices over what it has called a «potential threat».

We're thrilled to announce the return of GamesBeat Next, hosted in San Francisco this October, where we will explore the theme of «Playing the Edge.» Apply to speak here and learn more about sponsorship opportunities here. At the event, we will also announce 25 top game startups as the 2024 Game Changers. Apply or nominate today!

Borderlands developer Gearbox could be up for sale, according to a new report.

Voice actor Charles Martinet, who provided the voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and other iconic characters for decades, has spoken publicly about his new 'Mario Ambassador' role, and has revealed that he’s not entirely sure what it will consist of yet, either.

Charles Martinet has said that he doesn’t yet know what his new role of ‘Mario Ambassador’ entails.

The new NetEase studio from games industry veteran Rich Vogel is working on a public domain sci-fi IP for its first game, the founder has told VGC.

Certain Affinity has announced that it’s working on an original first-person shooter codenamed Loro.

Approximately 50 employees have been laid off at BioWare today. 

Tesla Inc.'s May data breach impacted more than 75,000 people, included employee-related records and was a result of “insider wrongdoing,” according to a notice posted by the office of the Maine Attorney General Friday.

China's NetEase Games has opened yet another new studio in T-Minus Zero Entertainment.

NetEase has tapped Bioware veteran Rich Vogel to lead a new studio based in Austin, Texas.

Today, NetEase unveiled its new US-based studio. T-Minus Zero Entertainment is located in Austin, Texas and is led by MMO veteran Rich Vogel. The studio is developing its first project, described in the announcement as «an ambitious, third person online multiplayer action game set in a sci-fi universe” and based on an original IP.

NetEase Games announced the opening of a new studio called T-Minus Zero Entertainment. Headquartered in Austin, Texas (like Jackalyptic Games, another NetEase developer now working on a Warhammer MMO), it is however a remote-first studio, as anyone can see from the job openings available on the official website for the positions of Lead Animator, Lead Character Artist, Lead Environment Artist, Lead Gameplay Engineer, Lead Level Designer, and Senior Gameplay Designer.

NetEase Games has announced the formation of a new studio led by MMO veteran Rich Vogel.

NetEase Games has announced the creation of a new development studio in Austin, Texas.

NetEase Games announced on Thursday that the company is establishing T-Minus Zero Entertainment, a new game development studio based in Austin, Texas. The studio will emphasize a remote-first approach and will be headed by Rich Vogel, an industry veteran known for his previous work on such games as Ultima Online, Star Wars: Galaxies, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

We're thrilled to announce the return of GamesBeat Summit Next, hosted in San Francisco this October, where we will explore the theme of «Playing the Edge.» Apply to speak  here  and learn more about sponsorship opportunities  here . 

Last year the James Webb Space Telescope discovered a distant galaxy, which was named after a birthday girl and is now known to be one of the four oldest galaxies ever discovered. The object was named “Maisie's Galaxy”. Earlier, it was assumed that it may have been very old due to the light it emits and redshift even from afar. Reports say that when the redshift is greater, it suggests that the source of light is older and positioned at a greater distance. Let's explore more about the 13-billion-year-old galaxy.