Author: News Room

Horizon Hunters Gathering, a live-service spin-off of Guerilla Games’ Horizon series, was announced earlier this year to mixed reception. While it retains worldbuilding elements from Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, the genre and art style are completely changed, and anecdotally, it seemed to alienate more than it attracted. That was before anyone had played the game, however. According to a report from Bloomberg, playtest feedback has caused the developer to take a step back and reevaluate what the game should look like.The report comes from Jason Schreier, a seasoned reporter in the video game space. He cites anonymous sources…

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has banned employees from wearing Meta smart glasses in federal workplaces over concerns that they could capture sensitive information and undermine privacy or legal protections, according to The New York Times. The rule applies to everyone at ICE, not only agents working in the field. ICE is effectively treating personally owned smart glasses like unauthorized body cameras. That fits its existing policy restricting recordings made by personnel while performing official duties. There’s an awkward bit of timing here. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fiscal 2027 budget includes funding for an operational smart-glasses prototype designed to…

Harvey Smith, best known for his tenure at Arkane Studios from 2008 until 2024, has announced a new game studio called Black Pony Immersive. Smith is joined by co-founder and executive producer Ben Horne, who worked with Smith for more than eight years, most recently on Redfall at Arkane Austin. Black Pony Immersive is founded with the goal to continue delivering the kinds of game experiences Smith has been known for over the course of his more than 30 years working in the industry.The immersive-sim subgenre is defined by player choice, vast series of interconnected game systems, and emergent moments…

Smart glasses are quickly reaching a point where putting a camera and an AI assistant on your face no longer requires spending several hundred dollars. Rollme has launched the AuraView and ProView, two new pairs of AI camera glasses priced at $99.99 each. Both models use a Sony 12MP camera with electronic image stabilization, alongside AI visual recognition, live translation, open-ear audio, and voice assistance. Rollme’s official store confirms the $99.99 price for both designs, which is an awful lot of wearable tech hovering around regular sunglasses money. $100 buys a surprisingly capable pair of glasses The 12MP camera can…

Tides of Annihilation is an upcoming character action game from China-based studio Eclipse Glow Games. Though the studio was formed just two years ago, its developers have experience working on series like Assassin’s Creed, For Honor, Persona, Yakuza/Like a Dragon, and more. That pedigree showed in the game when I went hands-on with it in Chengdu, China, last week to experience roughly two hours of protagonist Gwendolyn’s time-spanning adventure. Though modern London is the primary setting of Gwendolyn’s adventure, the Arthurian legend is quite literally crashing into her world, creating a strange but intriguing mix of one of Europe’s top tourist…

Google is finally rolling out the advanced sideloading flow it first teased back in March, giving power users a way to install apps from unverified developers on certified devices without touching ADB. Back then, Google started asking developers to verify their identity before their apps could land on certified Android devices, no matter if you download them from the Play Store, a third-party store, or sideload them directly. The idea is to tie every app to a real developer ID so scammers can’t easily sneak malware onto your phone. What do you have to do to use the advanced flow?…

Google just pushed the prices higher for the entire Pixel 11 lineup. The hikes weren’t surprising at all, especially considering the rising component costs and the ongoing RAMmageddon. But a new report hints that we might soon see a solution to all of this. According to Nikkei Asia, Google plans to stop producing all Pixel devices in China starting in 2027, shifting manufacturing toward India and Vietnam. The reported move covers Pixel phones, watches, and wireless earbuds as Google continues reducing its reliance on Chinese manufacturing. As always, there’s no guarantee Google will pass any resulting savings along to buyers.…

Intel’s future laptop chips could be in line for a much bigger cache. Leaker Jaykihn says Razor Lake will include mobile SKUs with bLLC, or Big Last Level Cache, potentially extending Intel’s large-cache strategy to notebooks. There’s already reason to be cautious with the details. Jaykihn initially identified TSMC’s N2X process for Razor Lake before correcting the claim to N2P V2. Intel hasn’t announced Razor Lake or confirmed either specification, so this remains a very early look at the generation. Razor Lake will come with bLLC mobile SKUs.— Jaykihn (@jaykihn0) August 18, 2026 Why bLLC could matter on laptops bLLC…

Windows 11’s August update is becoming a risky install for some gamers. Windows 11 update problems are hardly new, but KB5121003 has now been linked to crashes in The Finals, and developer Embark has already published troubleshooting steps for players who run into them. Embark traced the problem to inpoutx64.sys, a third-party driver that can conflict with the update. Its workaround removes the troublesome driver while leaving KB5121003 itself installed, which is a much better option than rolling back the whole update. That tradeoff is worth paying attention to because KB5121003 also carries security fixes. Microsoft’s support page still lists…

ByteDance and Tencent have reportedly begun receiving shipments of NVIDIA’s H200 artificial intelligence chips in China, marking a significant development in the technology rivalry between Beijing and Washington. According to the Financial Times, both companies have received around 10,000 H200 processors each over the past few weeks after China allowed the chips to enter the mainland. The shipments could give two of China’s largest technology companies additional computing power to train advanced AI models and develop AI agents capable of competing with leading U.S. systems. The development comes after months of uncertainty surrounding whether China would actually allow approved companies…