The company is refocusing its streaming service by Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge Google is shutting down its internal Stadia game development division, the company announced today, as it refocuses Stadia to be a home for streaming games from existing developers instead of developing its own games for the service. “Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially,” reads a blog post from Phil Harrison, a vice president at Google and general manager for Stadia. “Given our focus on building on the proven technology of Stadia as well as deepening our business partnerships, we’ve decided that we will not be investing further in bringing exclusive content from our internal development […]

by Lisa Respers France, CNN Dustin Diamond, who played the role of Screech on the popular 1990s high school comedy “Saved by the Bell,” died Monday after a recent cancer diagnosis, according to Diamond’s manager, Roger Paul.He was 44. Diamond first shared news of his cancer diagnosis last month. At the time, his manager said his client’s health was “serious” and that Diamond was undergoing further testing at a Florida hospital. He underwent his first round of chemotherapy days later. An actor and stand-up comedian, Diamond found fame playing Samuel “Screech” Powers for more than a decade on the “Saved by the Bell” franchise.The teen series was recently reimagined by the Peacock streaming service with some of the original stars, though not Diamond. […]

The fifth grader got a 5000% return on his mom’s investment by Julie Scagell, ScaryMommy.com Amateur investors on Reddit made headlines this past week by driving up GameStop’s stock prices sending many Wall Street hedge fund owners who were selling the stock into a frenzy. While many lost millions, one ten-year-old got a 5000% return on his mom’s original investment in GameStop and cheers to the real winners amongst this chaos. Jaydyn Carr was gifted ten GameStop shares, each bought at $6.19, as a Kwanzaa present from his mother in December 2019. His mom, Nina, said she bought the stock for her son because it was his favorite store to buy video games and she wanted to teach him a little bit about the stock […]

by Tyler Fischer, ComicBook.com The PS5 and Xbox Series X are nearly impossible to find right now, and it sounds like this won’t be changing anytime soon. The first month of 2021 is almost over, and while GameStop, Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and more all released new stock this month, it wasn’t nearly enough to satiate demand, and that’s partially because every resupply has been very limited with both Sony and Microsoft’s production lines struggling for parts, and because the effect the pandemic had on production lines last year that is still lingering. According to the CEO of AMD, Lisa Su, this isn’t changing in 2021. Speaking to investors during a recent earnings call, Su revealed not only is demand on […]

Actress and voice-over star Jeanette Maus has died at the age of 39 after an eight-month battle with colon cancer. The performer starred in several films as well as voicing several characters in Resident Evil 8: Village by Tamara Davison, Mirror Actress and acting coach Jeanette Maus has passed away at the age of 39, her fiancé has confirmed. The talented performer, who was also the voice-over for several characters in the Resident Evil 8: Village game, passed away after an eight month battle with colon cancer. Known for her work on films My Effortless Brilliance and Your Sister’s Sister, tributes have poured in for the actress after her fiancé, Dusty Warren, confirmed the tragic news on Facebook. “It is with […]

A proposal from the AFL-CIO to improve hiring practices at Activision and EA by including a more diverse applicant pool is being resisted. by Michael Lee, Game Rant Video games are a worldwide hobby, a giant global industry, and enjoyed by people from all backgrounds. Many people who grew up playing video games hope to be a part of the industry at some point. However, the industry has faced criticism for years over systemic discrimination that limits the opportunities available to women and people of color. Despite calls for inclusivity in gaming that have been ringing out for years, this problem still persists. A new diversity initiative proposed by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) looks to […]

The ridiculous number would not really be a problem for end users if OEMs actually respected Nvidia’s guidelines and provided clear info with the official specs. Unfortunately, very few OEMs are currently doing this, and we are seeing wild spec variations that allow lower-priced SKUs to outperform higher-priced variants. by Bogdan Solca, Notebook Check Nvidia’s reworked Max-Q branding is meant to offer laptop OEMs increased configurability that is not limited only to power specs, but also includes a set of specific technologies like Dynamic Boost 2, WhisperMode 2, Advanced Optimus, DLSS support etc. Thus, OEMs are now free to choose whatever Max-Q features they want to integrate with their laptop models, but are also encouraged by Nvidia itself to clearly specify the chosen […]

Twitch streamer Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins reaffirms his 2018 comments on not wanting to play with female gamers out of fear of the rumors it could create by Iain Lew, Game Rant Back in August 2018, Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins stated that he would not stream with female gamers out of respect for his wife and manager, Jessica Blevins, and to avoid the rumors that the situation could create. He received a mixed response at the time, with some arguing that he was making it more difficult for female streamers to break through in an industry and community with existing issues of misogyny, and others being more understanding of his want to protect his marriage. It appears that Ninja’s views on the matter […]

by Mike Fahey, Kotaku In an interview with New Zealand’s 1 News, Valve co-founder and president Gabe Newell talks about engineering a future where brain-computer interfaces create better-than-reality visuals and can actively edit who we think we are. You know, terrifying science-fiction stuff, only real. Why use your eyes and ears—which Newell sinisterly refers to as “meat peripherals”—to experience a game when you can have the visuals, sounds, and even feelings fed directly into your brain. That’s the idea of a brain-computer interface or BCI. Long-time proponents of body-interface technology like eye-tracking, Newell and Valve are currently working on an open-source BCI software project to give developers easy access to brain-reading tech. Using a headset like the ones developed by OpenBCI, developers can […]

by Steven Asarch, Insider On Thursday night, a clip from Twitch streamer Buckkerz that showed him screaming at his young child after losing at a video game went viral.  In the clip, Buckkerz (whose legal name hasn’t been confirmed by Insider) can be seen playing “Madden 21” with his toddler son on his lap. After having his in-game throw intercepted, the streamer yells “god dam—” as he throws his controller down, breaking it. “F—ing $300 f—ing controller” he yells as the young child screams on camera. “I’m about to go before I lose it,” he says, placing the child down in a chair before screaming directly in its face “shut the f— up!”  His webcam then disappears and the stream cuts off. […]