Gaming in Singapore. Reviews, Walkthroughs, News

I've been tracking developer Ubisoft Singapore's naval warfare multiplayer game, Skull and Bones, since its reveal years ago, both as a massive fan of all things pirates and someone who specifically loved the high seas action of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. I wrote Game Informer's Skull and Bones cover story back in 2022, and have played the game several times since then in previews, betas, and more. 

It’s an interesting week for controller-users. REDMAGIC dropped the Shadow Blade GamePad 2. Now, I know we all love our mobile gaming, but let’s face it – sometimes, those touch controls just don’t cut it. 

The rumored Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake might have been in development since September.

Development on the rumored Assassin's Creed Black Flag Remake might very well have kicked off late last year.

Sightings of an «unannounced Assassin's Creed project» on LinkedIn are adding more fuel to the Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag remake rumors. The Assassin's Creed 4 remake was reported to be in development last year; however, it was claimed that the game was still in the early stages. These reports also asserted that Ubisoft Singapore, the team behind the upcoming Skull and Bones, is taking part in development.

Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl's release date is September 5th 2024, GSC Game World have announced, as the developers make some final adjustments to a post-apocalyptic FPS that was revealed way back in 2010 and has been racked by more than its fair share of setbacks and changes of circumstances. They've published a new trailer to mark the occasion, in which a group of the game's quarantine zone mercenaries squat around a campfire, supping mugs of what probably isn't cocoa, and listening to guitar music. It strikes a fitting note of world-weariness.

Skull and Bones is (finally) getting close to release on February 16th. Now, the latest edition of Ubisoft’s “Echoes of History” podcast, titled “Gangsters of the Seas” gets a first episode, featuring actress Michelle Rodriguez.

Tech industry faces layoffs surge amidst billions in AI investments; Google's AI outperforms doctors in diagnostic conversations; Executives exercise caution in gen AI investments amid societal pressures; SK telecom eyes global AI dominance through tech collaborations- this and more in our daily roundup. Let us take a look.

Amazon-owned Twitch have announced that they will lay off "just over 500" people - almost 35% of their workforce - in the course of on-going plans to "rightsize our company", with CEO Dan Clancy conceding that the streaming service has been operating based on "where we optimistically expect our business to be in 3 or more years, not where we're at today."

Vistara plans to use virtual reality and augmented reality technologies for certain training activities for the staff, the airline's chief Vinod Kannan said on Monday and emphasised that there is always going to be a place for human intelligence as certain situations cannot be handled by bots.

While AI ethics continues to be the hot-button issue of the moment, and companies and world governments continue to wrangle with the moral implications of a technology that we often struggle to define let alone control, here comes some slightly disheartening news: AI chatbots are already being trained to jailbreak other chatbots, and they seem remarkably good at it.

VNG co-founder Le Hong Minh's first taste of international competition was as a gamer for Vietnam at an early e-sport tournament in South Korea. Two decades later, he says he's ready to face the world's best again as he takes his tech company public. The firm -- headquartered in buzzing business hub Ho Chi Minh City -- is one of Vietnam's leading game publishers, but it also runs a digital wallet, cloud services, and Vietnam's most popular messaging platform.

Today, December 19, has turned out to be an important day for artificial intelligence, especially for India. The government has announced that it has commenced the process of formulating regulations on AI to foster development, protection, and innovation in this space. In other news, IBM has revealed its plans to acquire StreamSets and webMethods platforms of Software AG for a total of 2.3 billion dollars in a bid to improve its own AI offerings. This and more in today's AI roundup. Let us take a closer look.

Skull and Bones  begins its second closed beta round today. With Ubisoft having set a launch date in February for the open world pirate game, the latest beta is here for a taste of what you can expect.

The Day Before's rise to infamy has been swift. Promised for an eventual PS5 release, it was released last week into Steams Early Access in an atrocious state, and players were quick to note it only vaguely resembled the product promised. The developer announced its dissolution days later, effective immediately, before the studio's owners, brothers named Gotovtsev, dropped a digital smoke bomb and disappeared entirely.

Starting from tomorrow through January 5, 2024, we’re celebrating the holiday season with a month full of activities for our PlayStation community. As part of the PlayStation Plus Season of Play, PlayStation Plus members can redeem free avatars for PS5 and PS4 consoles, join eSports tournaments, earn points on PlayStation Stars and enter a competition for your chance to win amazing prizes. Activities for those who are not PlayStation Plus members are available as well.

Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones has received another release date, launching on February 16th, 2024, after numerous delays. Time will tell ifanother delay occurs, but for now, a new closed beta will start on December 14th at 1 AM PT and end on December 18th at midnight PT for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC.

Skull and Bones has a new release date. Really. Ubisoft revealed that the upcoming pirate MMO is set to raise anchor on February 16th, 2024. There’s a new trailer, and even a deep dive into closed beta, which continues in a new test next week.

Ubisoft has released a new Skull and Bones gameplay trailer, following their release date reveal on 2023’s The Game Awards.

Larian Studios and Remedy led The Game Awards last night, with Baldur's Gate 3 winning six awards including Game of the Year, and Alan Wake 2 taking home three of the eight it was nominated for.

Skull and Bones will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC via Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Store, Stadia, and Luna on February 16, 2024, publisher Ubisoft and developer Ubisoft Singapore announced.

Skull and Bones, Ubisoft's beleaguered pirate adventure, finally has a release date.

Skull And Bones was initially meant to launch in the autumn of 2018, but it's been delayed and delayed, rebooted and delayed some more. Its most recent slip was from November of this year into 2024, but Ubisoft have now put a new specific date on their multiplayer pirate 'em up: February 16th, 2024.

Ubisoft Singapore’s Skull & Bones has finally been given a new release date.

Skull and Bones, Ubisoft's repeatedly-delayed multiplayer pirate game, finally has a release date. Again. After being delayed six times.

Hey there, fellow adventurers! Exciting news is sweeping Southeast Asia as “OCTOPATH TRAVELER: Champions of the Continent” makes a surprise early landing! Fans couldn’t be more thrilled as the Octopath Traveler (SEA) version drops a fantastic ten days ahead of schedule. 

Lance McDonald just debunked the recent alleged leak for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.

The Day Before is out on PC tomorrow, 7th December, and is supposed to be coming to PS5 at some point in the future. We noted back in February and again after the survival MMO's indefinite PS5 delay that something seemed slightly strange about this story, and developer Fntastic has released another statement, apologising for the lack of marketing and pushing back on allegations of «scamming».

Following some heated statements from the US Commerce Secretary, Gina Raimondo, NVIDIA's CEO has said that they are working with the US to make sure that their latest AI chips are fully compliant with the newest regulation policies.

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DK is moving in right next door to Super Nintendo World.

Nintendo and Universal's partnership has been a fruitful one. Universal Studios Japan's version of Super Nintendo World kicked it all off in late 2020 and early 2021 with a magical experience for Nintendo fans (learn more about our experience here), then in February 2023, Universal Studios Hollywood's Super Nintendo World opened its doors (see our photo tour of that version here). The collaboration to this point culminated shortly after that with the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which garnered strong fan reactions and grossed more than $1 billion at the box office.

Starting from tomorrow through January 5, 2024, we’re celebrating the holiday season with a month full of activities for our PlayStation community. As part of the PlayStation Plus Season of Play, PlayStation Plus members can redeem free avatars for PS5 and PS4 consoles, join eSports tournaments, earn points on PlayStation Stars, save on PlayStation Gear merchandise, and enter a competition for your chance to win amazing prizes. Activities for those who are not PlayStation Plus members are available as well.

Unknown9: Awakening will be released in 2024.

Over three years ago, at Gamescom in August 2020, Reflector Entertainment announced its debut project in Unknown 9: Awakening, an action-adventure title that will put players in the shoes of Haroona, a young girl from Kolkata, India with mysterious powers. Since its promising announcement, however, updates on the game have been completely nonexistent- though that may be about to change soon.

Over five years after a copyright dispute regarding PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and the mobile game Knives Out, Krafton and NetEase have reached a settlement on the matter. 

The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) has today published the 2023 World Digital Competitiveness Ranking (WDCR), in which India ranks 49th among 64 economies. According to IMD's study, India has made significant in terms of cybersecurity knowledge but lacks on fronts like technology and future readiness. IMD's World Digital Competitiveness Ranking offers insights into how various nations are navigating digital transformation in the era of artificial intelligence (AI). 

Popular artificial intelligence (AI) image generator, Stable Diffusion, perpetuates harmful racial and gendered stereotypes, US scientists have found.

In a recent interview, Saikat Mitra, Vice President and Head of Trust and Safety for Asia-Pacific at Google, shed light on the challenges faced in addressing the issue of fraudulent loan apps on the Google Play Store. Mitra explained that the delay in addressing these concerns stemmed from the fact that the apps, while not containing malware or harmful content, exhibited problematic business practices in the real world. When developers submit apps for listing on the Play Store, Google scrutinises them extensively, considering factors like code integrity and content safety.

According to reporting from Tom Henderson at Insider Gaming, Ubisoft’s beleaguered pirate game Skull & Bones will finally arrive on February 16, 2024.

Unity are chopping 265 jobs - around 3.8% of their global workforce - and ending an agreement with digital effects company Wētā FX as part of a company "reset", following an awful year for the game engine provider. Unity also plan to close offices in 14 locations, including Singapore and Berlin, and cut costs at offices in San Francisco and Bellevue, Washington.

Unity is making further cuts to its workforce as it ends an agreement with Weta FX.

The open world pirate multiplayer game Skull and Bones might be only two and a half months away from launching, at long last. The rumor appeared a few hours ago on Insider Gaming, which cited anonymous sources also confirming the existence of a Premium Edition.

Next year, Gamescom will be spinning up a new event set in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Appropriately dubbed Gamescom Latam, it'll run from June 26, 2024 to June 30 and provide "a unique opportunity for gaming fans and for the digital entertainment industry from Brazil, the whole Latin America and beyond."

Ubisoft's beleaguered pirate adventure Skull and Bones is — following yet another delay back in October — reportedly now targeting a 16th February release next year.

Reddit Inc. is again holding talks with potential investors for an initial public offering for the social media company, according to people familiar with the matter, as hopefuls prepare for a long-awaited reopening of the market for new listings. The San Francisco-based firm, whose users helped fuel the meme-stock frenzy that made 2021 a banner year for equities, is weighing an IPO as soon as in the first quarter, the people said. Reddit was working with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on the listing, Bloomberg News reported last year, and was considering a valuation of as much as $15 billion.

Do Kwon, former crypto darling and now fugitive, was arrested in Montenegro this March while attempting to flee to Dubai. The High Court in Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital, has now given approval for Do Kwon's extradition, though whether he'll be off to South Korea or the US, both of which have open arrest warrants for him, remains to be decided.

The 2023 MAMA Awards, or Mnet Asian Music Awards, will take place this month at Japan’s Tokyo Dome. It will be a two-day event, where K-pop artists like ENHYPEN, Street Woman Fighter 2, TVXQ, ATEEZ, SEVENTEEN, ZEROBASEONE, and (G)I-DLE will perform.

Thanks to an ongoing promotion with Monster Energy, players can receive exclusive in-game rewards by buying energy drink cans. During the promotional period, some Monster Energy drinks will have codes on their tabs. Players can head online to redeem these codes to receive exclusive themed Operator skins and valuable double XP boosters.

Skull and Bones’ release window was confirmed yet again from an official, if somewhat uncertain source.

Yesterday, Nvidia unveiled the H200 chip for artificial intelligence models, which will now be the company's most advanced semiconductor. Now today, November 14, things in the AI space has become even more exciting. In the first incident, YouTube announced that it would begin a crackdown on AI-generated deepfakes, especially those that mimic the platform's music industry partners. In other news, a new Oxford study has revealed that AI can help predict the risk of a heart attack as much as 10 years ahead of time. This and more in today's AI round-up. Let us take a closer look.

Web3 game community Game7 said in a report that Asia Pacific has become the hub for Web3 game development while the U.S. dominates Web3 game funding.

Next week marks the third year since PS5 launched and we wanted to take this opportunity to thank the more than 40 million players who’ve joined our global PS5 community. In these first three years, PlayStation Studios and third-party developers have introduced more than 2,500 PS5 games for players to enjoy, including fan-favorite titles in recent months like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Final Fantasy XVI.

It's being reported that Ubisoft is undergoing another round of layoffs to "streamline our operations," this time hitting its largest development studio and other groups across the world. Per IGN, Ubisoft Montreal has laid off 98 staff members, along with another 26 across global IT teams and the Hybride VFX studio, which included artists that assisted on the production of Disney's The Mandalorian series. "These are not decisions taken lightly, and we are providing comprehensive support for our colleagues who will be leaving Ubisoft during this transition," reads Ubisoft's statement. "We also want to share our utmost gratitude and respect for their many contributions to the company.

Aethir, a startup focused on decentralized cloud infrastructure (DCI) for games and AI, announced it has launched its testnet on Arbitrum.

We are happy to share that 11.11 Festival this year starts from 3rd till 16th November 2023, and players will be able to purchase PlayStation 5 consoles for up to SGD 160 / MYR 550 / THB 4,200/ IDR 1,820,000 / VND 2,900,000 off at participating retailers in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.

We might actually play The Day Before soon.

The shift to cloud infrastructure has become a massive trend for the internet. But moving generative AI and gaming applications to the cloud can strain computing resources.

Update:  Pulse Explore wireless earbuds, Pulse Elite wireless headset, and additional PlayStation Link USB adapters will be available to pre-order starting Friday, November 24th. Preorders will be available through PlayStation Authorized Dealers and Sony Centres in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam. 

Old World Lab's Abyss Online celebrated their popularity at Gamescom Singapore with a series of content teasers showing off several choice clips of combat and gathering. The developers were excited to announce the popularity of their game during the convention, captivating attendees with their immersive world rendered in Unreal Engine 5. The team stated in a recent Steam post that they are eager to replicate their success, and plan to conduct live demos and AMAs with gamers around the world, with Taipei being the next stop.

Old World Lab's Abyss Online celebrated their popularity at Gamescom Singapore with a series of content teasers showing off several choice clips of combat and gathering. The developers were excited to announce the popularity of their game during the convention, captivating attendees with their immersive world rendered in Unreal Engine 5. The team stated in a recent Steam post that they are eager to replicate their success, and plan to conduct live demos and AMAs with gamers around the world, with Taipei being the next stop.

Remember Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones? The pirated-themed naval combat title was set to release earlier this year in March but faced a delay, adding to the various others since its official reveal in 2017. In its first half fiscal year 2024 earnings report, the publisher announced it’s launching in Q4 of 2023-2024.

Ubisoft seems to be finally narrowing down on Skull and Bones’ release.

After multiple delays, Skull And Bones again has a new release window. According to Ubisoft, its upcoming pirate game is now slated to launch sometime in Q4 2023-2024.

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Xiaomi has given a sneak peek of its latest smartwatch on Weibo and there is a lot to be excited about this particular wearable gadget. This smartwatch can measure your blood pressure by following the traditional method of an inflated cuff and is currently known as the Xiaomi Wrist ECG and Blood Pressure Recorder. This is the first of its kind smartwatch by the company. As per reports, the smartwatch's strap mimics a regular blood pressure cuff for accurate readings.

Dynasty Warriors 9 is getting another turn in the spotlight, this time in the form of a mobile game. Nexon and Koei Tecmo announced Dynasty Warriors M for a global release this winter. 

Nexon and licensor Koei Tecmo have announced Dynasty Warriors M, an action RPG based on Dynasty Warriors 9 for iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play). It is available now as a soft launch in Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia as a free-to-play title with item-based microtransactions, with a worldwide launch to follow this winter.

Venture capital firm Peak XV Partners said the latest batch of its accelerator program are made up mainly of AI and deep tech startups, as global investors jostle to be early in such companies.

Nostra is launching its disruptive mobile game discovery platform around the globe and it will make it available to game developers worldwide.

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Arguably the biggest gaming chair manufacturer, Secretlab has revealed a brand new collaboration for their current Titan models. The Singaporean company has announced today that they are teaming up with Oracle Red Bull Racing to bring the latest and finest to the gaming world. While we’ve seen various chairs from Secretlab before, from Batman before Fortnite, it seems most fitting for a gaming racing chair to be designed after an actual F1 racing team. And what better team to do so than with the recent Hungarian and Japanese Grand Prix winners.

The EA FC 24 Amazon Prime Gaming Twitch packs are now rolling out, providing plenty of opportunities for Prime subscribers to take home some major goodies to help improve your Ultimate Team Squad.

The International Olympic Committee has announced plans to create the Olympic Esports Games.

In the world of gaming, the words “open-world,” “survival,” and “crafting” have become synonymous with immersive and captivating experiences. And now, Singapore-based indie games developer Samar Studio has unveiled their latest creation, “The Front.” This open-world survival crafting shooter has just hit Early Access on PC, allowing players to step into a post-apocalyptic world filled with endless possibilities. In this SEO-friendly article, we’ll explore the key features, gameplay mechanics, and exciting developments of “The Front.”

From Southeast Asia, online game publisher PlayPark has launched over 180 PC and mobile games since 2001. Working for Asiasoft Corporation Public Company Limited, they have employees in six countries and are managing over 29 games. They cover a wide range of genres, like MMORPGs, SRPGs, FPSs and MOBAs. Examples include MapleStory SEA and Ragnarok Mobile. Recently, PlayPark released a statement announcing the closed beta test of their newest game, Black Moon SEA. The test is scheduled for October 12 and October 16, 2023, at 12 pm and 12 am GMT respectively. PlayPark invites players to explore and save an amazing world shrouded in darkness.

The next Valorant agent is set to be a Duelist, Riot Games reveals, as it gives us a tantalizing tease of what we can expect from the final addition to its FPS game’s roster for 2023. As the team reflects on its last pair of agents and the community response to their arrival, it gives us a little glimpse at who’s next on the cards.

The artificial intelligence revolution is fully underway, but soaring demand for its most crucial component has startups scratching their heads on how they can deliver on AI's promise.

Presented by Blockchain Game Alliance

There’s never any shortage of interest in what Sony has planned for the PC gaming space, and if recent leaks are to be believed, the next PlayStation-exclusive title the company intends to bring to PC is Horizon Forbidden West, with a Complete Edition allegedly being prepared for release on PS5 and PC, bunding both the game game and its expansion, Burning Shores, together. But exactly when will the open world action RPG make that jump?