Microsoft Corp started its annual Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday, unveiling a new all-digital version of its Xbox Series X and S consoles, as well as trailers for more than a dozen games including the next installment of Call of Duty.
The Games Showcase comes at a crucial time for Xbox and Microsoft, as the gaming industry faces a downturn and publishers grapple with softer sales, layoffs and studio shutdowns.
Microsoft showed off three gaming consoles, including a disc-less version of the Xbox Series X and S consoles, and a special edition of the Series X with 2 terabytes of storage.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The hardware refresh could help Xbox boost sales of its consoles, which compete with Sony Group Corp’s PlayStation 5.
Among the games on display was Doom: The Dark Ages, the latest installment in the long-running Doom franchise, as well as a sneak peek at the newest Gears of War title, ending a five-year wait for one of Xbox’s most popular properties.
A sizeable number of games including the new Doom and Call of Duty would be available on Xbox Game Pass on the day of launch, indicating that Microsoft is making big bets on the subscription service as it tries to woo consumers grappling with a relatively softer economy.
The Games Showcase was followed by a special feature from Activision Blizzard Inc’s studios which highlighted features, characters and gameplay from Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, which is slated to be released in October.
The game’s developers Treyarch Corp and Raven Software Corp showed clips from Black Ops 6’s campaign, which takes place in the early 1990s, touting features such as a new movement system allowing players to sprint in all directions, and a glimpse at the fan-favorite “Zombies” mode.
CHIP HANG-UP: Surging memorychip prices would deal a blow to smartphone sales this year, potentially hindering one of MediaTek’s biggest sources of revenue MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip designer, yesterday said its new artificial intelligence (AI) chips used in data centers are to account for 20 percent of its total revenue next year, as cloud service providers race to deploy AI infrastructure to meet voracious demand. MediaTek is believed to be developing tensor processing units for Google, which are used in AI applications. While it did not confirm such reports, MediaTek said its new application-specific IC (ASIC) business would be a new growth engine for the company. It again hiked its forecast for the addressable ASIC market to US$70 billion by 2028, compared
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it plans to double investment in data center-related technologies, including advanced packaging and high-speed interconnect technologies, to broaden the new business’ customer and service portfolios. The chip designer is redirecting its resources to data centers, mainly designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for cloud service providers. The data center business is forecast to lead growth in the next three years and become the company’s second-biggest revenue source, replacing chips used in smart devices, MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told a media event in Taipei. “Three or four years
Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
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