Production News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

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AMD's next-generation Ryzen CPUs codenamed Granite Ridge and powered by the Zen 5 core architecture have reportedly entered mass production.

Sea of Stars was a highlight in a year that’s going to go down as one of the best we’ve ever seen in gaming, with Sabotage Studio’s retro-styled RPG garnering widespread praise for everything from its story and combat to its art style and more. Understandably enough, fans of the RPG have been desperate to experience more of the game, and sure enough, Sabotage Studio is working on new content.

We know Nintendo is up to something, we just don't know what that something is yet. A new console is almost certainly coming as we approach the seventh anniversary of the Switch's launch, but Nintendo hasn't told us what that console is yet. It hasn't even revealed it's working on something. The evidence an announcement is imminent continues to stack up though, the latest indicator being the absence of popular Switch games on the majority of store shelves.

Netflix has unveiled a new cast photo to celebrate the official start of ‘s long-awaited production. The photo features several cast members seated in a room, all portrayed in monochrome with the only color coming from a large red “5.”

NVIDIA's consumer & gaming GPUs have reportedly started to see a drastic reduction in global supply, potentially creating a shortage in markets.

Jason Blum's Blumhouse and James Wan's Atomic Monster, two of the biggest horror production companies in Hollywood, have officially merged. 

The cutting-edge 3nm process developed by TSMC only had Apple as the sole customer, but with just a couple of days remaining for 2024 to start, the Taiwanese foundry is expected to secure more orders for the second iteration of its advanced node dubbed ‘N3E.’ This will allow the manufacturer to ramp up production, with the latest report stating that the company’s operational capacity is said to jump to 80 percent in the second half of 2024.

Samsung Electronics Co. has delayed mass production plans at its new chip plant in Taylor, Texas, the Seoul Economic Daily said, potentially dealing another blow to the Biden administration's ambition to increase domestic semiconductor supplies. te

On June 6, 2023, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple CEO Tim Cook used the magic phrase ‘One more thing' to unveil the newest product line of the company, Apple Vision Pro. It is a mixed reality headset that uses augmented reality and virtual reality elements to create an immersive experience of what the company calls ‘spatial computing'. Users will see a 3D version of the interface and apps in front of them, and it can be interacted with. It works entirely on eye tracking and gesture control and it even features a virtual keyboard. Even though the product was announced almost six months ago, the company is yet to launch it. Now, as per a new report, it can hit the stores as soon as late January 2024.

An earlier Apple Vision Pro launch timeline stated that the mixed-reality headset’s shipments would start in February next year, with the company’s supply chain working in overdrive mode to avoid any further delay. Now, one analyst believes that if the current schedule is maintained, the device will start getting stocked in stores beginning in late January. Aside from these launch predictions, the analyst also states that the mixed-reality headset will be Apple’s most important product for 2024 and also provides shipment estimates for next year.

James Gunn has officially revealed the production start date, confirming that filming on the highly anticipated movie will begin next year.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is filled with plenty of memorable sequences, but if there's a boss fight that doesn't fail to impress is the Chimera boss fight, which is unlike anything found in both the base game and the expansion. What makes this epic boss fight even better is the amazing sound production, which was handled by Sound Lab in collaboration with CD Projekt Red internal team.

officially has its eyes set on a production date.

In addition to the MI300X for AI, AMD is also announcing that its Instinct MI300A APU has entered volume production and is expected to offer the world's fastest HPC performance when it launches next year.

This year's iPhone launch brought a boatload of front-facing changes for the standard models in the lineup. Last year, the company introduced Dynamic Island for the iPhone 14 Pro models. However, the standard iPhone 14 models featured the same notch as the iPhone 13 series. Now, the entire iPhone 15 lineup features Dynamic Island on the front, bringing the standard models much closer to the 'Pro' models as far as the design is concerned. A new report claims that Apple supplier BOE has difficulty expanding the OLED supply for the iPhone 15 models due to light leakage issues.

Industry sources report that the effect of production cuts by memory manufacturers has started to translate in mainstream markets as DDR5 memory prices have soared by huge margins.

We found out last August that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was set to hit theaters on December 20, 2024, but a new teaser gave us another glimpse at its newest star: Shadow the Hedgehog.

The Cybertruck hasn't even hit the market yet, and Elon Musk already is lamenting that Tesla Inc. has dug its own grave. Its stainless steel body may be able to withstand bullets and arrows, but it's going to be a bear putting the panels together. It will be Tesla's first high-voltage vehicle, offering the benefit of faster charging, but also potential pitfalls. And it will be Tesla's only product dependent on in-house battery cells that are years behind schedule.

With less than two months before the expected announcement of the RTX 40-series Super models, it's being reported that Nvidia is putting a halt to the RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 Ti lines. The idea is, of course, that these will be superseded by the 4080 Super and the delightfully named 4070 Ti Super.

Since launching last month, One More Level’s Ghostrunner 2 has done decently for the developer. It earned PLN 24.4 million or $6.13 million in revenue as of October 31st, roughly five days after release per Bankier.pl. Production costs for the title amount to PLN 16.7 million or $4.2 million, meaning it’s turned a profit.

Samsung Foundry has seemingly secured orders from major companies including AMD & Tesla, as per a report from Korean outlet, Fnnews.

TSMC only had one customer for its 3nm ‘N3B’ process, which was Apple, but in 2024, a new report states that the semiconductor manufacturer is expected to witness a double-digit increase in revenue for this category as it aims to add more partners for its long-supported cutting-edge node. With this growth, the company’s 3nm wafer production is also said to reach 100,000 monthly units by the end of next year.

The Simpsons: Hit & Run has become a popular name when referencing early 00's gaming. But, since its release in 2003 and despite the game's success, no efforts have been made to recreate the experience and breathe a new life into a well-loved title. Or so we thought. 

It doesn’t feel that long ago since Nvidia launched its RTX 4000 “Ada Lovelace” range. In fact, the 4090 only came out last October. However, there’s a chance that Team Green may be halting production of two of its products.

AI is coming to disrupt game art production whether artists like it or not. And Layer AI is the latest startup to raise $1.8 million to bring AI to game art.

Like every other media production, The Last of Us’ second season on HBO was held up for several months by the writers and actors strikes in Hollywood, but with the strikes now having wrapped up, the show is preparing to move ahead for next steps.

According to recent reports from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple will refresh its entire iPad lineup next year. At this stage, it is unclear which iPad models will be the first to receive upgrades. Prominent analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple will first announce the OLED iPad Pro next year. It is now being reported that Apple will begin OLED panel production next year.

This morning, Nintendo confirmed that a live action Zelda movie is in production. Nintendo and Arad Productions will produce the movie; interestingly, financing will be handled by Nintendo (for more than half of the budget) and Sony Pictures Entertainment, with the latter handling global theatrical distribution.

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen released its latest recap post, which details the pre-alpha testing that has been occurring recently. As part of this month's newsletter, the team at Visionary Realms has touted its recent extraction mode testing as helping to improve its production pace since the testing began.

Looks like Ubisoft is the latest company to lay off a number of employees. The studio confirmed the decision to lay off employees, but added that none are on production teams.

The World of Warcraft community has quickly fallen in love with Warbands, and for good reason. It's one of those key quality-of-life improvements that seems impossibly small on the surface, particularly when announced alongside the towering Worldsoul Saga – three incoming expansions that are designed to drive the future of one of the best MMORPGs of all-time. 

The second season of HBO's The Last of Us adaptation is currently expected to enter production in early 2024.

The Mate 60 lineup from Huawei is expected to reach shipments of 20 million in 2023, giving the former Chinese giant sufficient confidence to ramp up production of future models going into 2024. With the help of the Kirin 9000S, the fortunes of the firm may have rekindled, as an updated forecast suggests that Huawei will ship 100 million smartphones next year.

Alan Wake 2 is Remedy's big project of the moment, but it's far from the only thing the studio is working on. Today, as part of its most recent financial report, the company shared a look at how its other projects, including a sequel to Control and remakes of the first two Max Payne games, are coming along.

Remedy Entertainment released Alan Wake 2 last week, and both fans and critics alike seem to be pleased with the long-awaited sequel – you can read Game Informer's Alan Wake 2 review here. And now, just a few days later, the studio has provided some updates to some games it has in development, including Control 2 and its remakes of Max Payne 1 and 2. 

Remedy Entertainment is one of the busier studios in the industry right now, and even though Alan Wake 2 is now out of the way, the developer still has a number of projects currently in various stages of development. In a recent quarterly fiscal report, the studio has provided an update on how several of them are progressing behind the scenes.

Remedy has issued an update on all its in-development games while stressing it’s too early to comment on sales of the recently released Alan Wake 2.

Alan Wake 2 finally crawled out of the ocean after being stuck in a 13-year-long limbo, and developer Remedy Entertainment is now shifting its focus to its other projects: Control’s sequel, the Max Payne remakes, and other oddball games.

Developer Remedy has shared more news about several of its upcoming releases.

This morning, Remedy Entertainment shared its half-year report with investors. The Finnish studio proudly noted the excellent reception to Alan Wake 2's release, though it also said it's too early to discuss sales.

PlayStation's Head of Internal Studios, Connie Booth, has left the company after 34 hours, Sony has now confirmed.

A short while after Apple officially announced its October 30 ‘Crazy Fast’ event, an analyst backtracks on his original prediction concerning the company’s launch of the M3 and the MacBook Pro lineup that will feature this chipset. Apparently, he believes that the lack of upgrades provided by the M2 will force Apple to proceed with a launch this year even though the upcoming portable Macs might be produced in fewer numbers.

PlayStation head of production, Connie Booth, has reportedly left the company after having worked there for 34 years, according to David Jaffe, who took to YouTube to make the claim citing unnamed sources.

French publishing giant Ubisoft is bringing management of its North American studios under Christophe Derennes (pictured).

Ubisoft has reorganized its North American studios around a single core location: Montreal, Canada. 

EA and Motive Studio announced in September that the developer had started working on a single player action-adventure Iron Man title, and the studio has now provided an update on how development on the game is going.

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The golden age of cheap memory and SSDs has been good to us all, but like all good things, it was never destined to last. At least not according to Techspot, which has reported that, due to forthcoming production cuts, the industry is likely to see an upswing in consumer prices towards the end of this year.

Apple’s first OLED iPad Pro lineup is expected to debut next year, which can only mean that it will unveil the first MacBook Pro family with the same technology, too, right? Unfortunately, one report states that a transition from mini-LED to OLED will not be possible without the manufacturers setting up the required production lines, and that will take years to complete.

Castlevania: Nocturne may have only premiered on 28th September, but a second season is already in production.

A Telltale representative stated the company is working to support everyone impacted by the layoffs.

Earlier today, former Telltale Games cinematic artist Jonah Huang revealed on Twitter that he had been laid off from the studio in early September. In his tweet, he writes that «Telltale laid most of us off in early September,» and that the layoffs occurred weeks after the company acquired U.K.-based studio, Flavourworks, which developed Erica. 

CD Projekt Red and media company Anonymous Content have announced a partnership for a Cyberpunk 2077 “live-action project”, currently in early development.

Intel is set to begin high-volume manufacturing of its Intel 4 node with bleeding edge extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) in Ireland from Friday the 29th of September. It will host a ceremony at its Fab 34 facility near Leixlip, Ireland at 12:45pm Irish Standard Time. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger will be in attendance.

Aug X Labs has raised $3.1 million to democratize video creation through AI technologies.

We may not be getting any big juicy news on Naughty Dog's games or show as part of The Last of Us day today, but we do have a slither of an update for season two of HBO's TV adaptation.

Hollywood has been at a standstill for months. First, the Writers Guild of America went on strike thanks to the treatment by studios and streamers regarding pay, the use of AI, the size of writers’ rooms, and more. Then, the Screen Actors Guild went on strike for similar reasons, and thus, almost every project in Hollywood ground to a halt. After all, nothing could get made without writers in the rooms to make scripts and without actors to portray characters. That meant high-profile shows like The Last Of Us Season 2 couldn’t be created or worked on behind the scenes.

Pegatron, an Apple iPhone manufacturer, on Monday suspended iPhone assembly at its facility near Chennai, Tamil Nadu, due to a fire incident. The incident happened on Sunday night, three sources told Reuters. Pegatron, a Taiwanese firm, called off all shifts for the day at the factory. Workers are yet to be informed whether the facility will function on Tuesday. Pegatron in a statement told Reuters that "there was a spark incident" at the facility that is currently under control, and the incident "does not have significant financial or operational impact" for the company.

The Last of Us season 2 looks like it’s finally set to resume production. Co-showrunner Craig Mazin shared the news on Threads, in the light of a tentative agreement reached for the WGA strikes to end.

Publisher NetEase Games and developer Naked Rain have released a new developer diary for “urban open-world RPG” Project Mugen.

The new iPhone 15 Pro Max is a big hit! People want it more than the iPhone 14 Pro Max, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. But here's the catch – it's taking a long time to make. Just a few days after Apple released their latest iPhones on September 12, it turns out that the iPhone 15 Pro Max is the one everyone is talking about. This is great news for Apple, but there are some challenges they need to handle.

Italian tech website Chips 'n Bits reckons it has it on good authority that AMD will «sacrifice next Radeon gaming GPUs (RX 8000) output at TSMC in order to pump up FPGA and GPGPU production.»

visual effects production supervisor Stephane Ceretti has spoken about filming Rocket’s intense flashbacks from the Marvel Studios sequel.

MediaTek decided to skip its upcoming Dimensity 9300 launch casually and, through a joint press release with TSMC, officially announced that both companies have developed the world’s first 3nm chipset. The announcement comes less than a week after Apple is set to unveil its own 3nm SoC, the A17 Bionic, but sadly, MediaTek’s cutting-edge silicon will not be available this early because, according to the details, it will enter volume production in 2024.

In anticipation of its highly awaited iPhone 15 event scheduled for September 12, Apple enthusiasts worldwide are gearing up for the tech giant's next big reveal. The event's tagline, "Wonderlust," has sparked curiosity and excitement, hinting at the remarkable innovations in store. However, recent insights shared by Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo shed light on the production journey of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models, revealing a few bumps in the road that Apple has been navigating with its customary diligence.

Apple's iPhone 15 launch is less than two weeks away and we are hearing a plethora of details on how the device will look like. Last year, the iPhone 14 Pro models came with a plethora of changes and a new Dynamic Island technology on the front. This year, the company is planning to revamp the external design of the device with a new titanium finish which could offer a brand-new brushed look to the devices. However, an analyst is now reporting that the iPhone 15 Pro Max could launch with a tight supply compared to other models.

Starfield is so close, you can almost feel the cold void clutching at your bones through the thin sheen of your delicate spacesuit: September 1 for everyone who's purchased the Premium or Constellation editions of the game, and September 6 for everyone else. And when it's finally out the door, that clears the deck for the game everyone's really been waiting for: The Elder Scrolls 6. Right? Well, yes, but not anytime soon.

First officially confirmed to be in the works back in 2018, The Elder Scrolls 6 has been in the pre-production phase of development for several years at this point, but with Starfield’s launch now right around the corner, developer Bethesda Game Studios is gearing up to turn its attention to the development of the open world fantasy RPG. In fact, The Elder Scrolls 6 has finally exited the pre-production phase, and has officially entered early development.

There is quite a bit of hype over Bethesda’s next major RPG release. Starfield was first teased years ago alongside the next installment to The Elder Scrolls franchise. However, we knew that Starfield would be released first. With the new RPG from the talented folks at Bethesda nearing its release next week or in just two days if you’re an early access player, the attention might soon transition over to what might be next. Today, we’re finding out that Bethesda’s Pete Hines commented on The Elder Scrolls 6.

The Elder Scrolls 6 is seemingly in active development, right as Starfield launches.

As we draw closer to the launch of AMD's RX 7700 XT and RX 7800 XT graphics cards, it comes as little surprise that production of RDNA 2 based chips including Navi 23 is progressively ending. This GPU powers the RX 6600 series and for a long time it carried AMD's mid range hopes.

In light of BioWare eliminating approximately 50 roles to become a “more agile and focused studio,” general manager Gary McKay talked about the development for upcoming titles, like Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. Though not directly revealing the departures’ impact on the same, he said, “Our dedication to the game has never wavered.

EA-owned development studio Bioware has provided a studio update in which the creator of a new Mass Effect has announced layoffs.

In a time where every video game under the sun seems to be getting adapted into a film or TV show, Story Kitchen has acquired the rights to make Slime Rancher into a movie.

Microsoft has announced that it will no longer produce any more Kinect hardware.

The Linus Tech Tips controversy continued today with an apology video (embedded above) in which various company executives admitted that things at the popular hardware review channel aren't going very well right now. The company says it will be halting all video production for a week while it makes internal changes to improve the quality of its content and, following criticism that it favored speed and volume over accuracy, slow down its upload schedule.

In what is seen as a first, Apple iPhone 15 mass production has started in Tamil Nadu, India. This is the first time that an iPhone has started being manufactured in India before it has actually even been announced by the company, MacRumors reports. And this is a step that will worry China as it indicates India's rising status in the tech manufacturing segment that it had been controlling for so long. For Apple, this is the best way to protect its manufacturing base after the fiasco that happened during and even after the Covid-19 epidemic in China when its entire supply-chain was disrupted.

Despite being publicly available for less than a year, generative AI technology can already be found all around us, helping us browse the internet, taking the drudgery out of computer coding, and even improving the dialog in popular video game franchises. On Wednesday, NCSoft, the South Korean game developer and publisher behind long-running MMORPG Guild Wars, announced that it has developed four new AI large language models, dubbed VARCO, to help streamline future game development.

GenCon 2023 has come and gone, but one of the highlights of my weekend was interviewing Disney Lorcana designer Ryan Miller. During our 20 minute interview, Ryan and I chatted about how Lorcana came to be, some of his favourite cards, and what the actual targeted demographic was for the game (hint, it wasn’t kids!)