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Nvidia Apologies In Advance About Shortages For Upcoming RTX 3090 Pre-orders

nvidia geforce rtx 3090

A lot of the news lately has centered around the new consoles, the PS5, the Xbox Series S and the Xbox Series X, as pre-orders for all them went live recently. As one might expect, people are mixed about that as pre-orders generally went very quickly for all the systems. But consoles players weren't the only ones with pre-order frustrations as something similar played out with Nvidia's new graphics card. Well, their highest end card is about to go up for pre-order and, well, it seems Nvidia is expecting something similar to happen. 

The RTX 3080 went up for order last week and was gone almost instantly. The 3090, the most powerful card they'll be selling, is scheduled to go up for pre-order sometime later today, and in a blog post on the official site the company acknowledges both the issues with the 3080, as well as gives an apology in advance for the shortages that are expected to lead to the same problems for the 3090.

"Since we built GeForce RTX 3090 for a unique group of users, like the TITAN RTX before it, we want to apologize upfront that this will be in limited supply on launch day .We know this is frustrating, and we're working with our partners to increase the supply in the weeks to come."

Well, can't say that bodes well, so good luck to all those PC players looking to get the best of the best. The 3080 is largely sold out with the 3090 going live for sell later today. The budget card, the 3070, is planned for October. You can read more details about all three cards through here.

 

 

 

Metroid Prime 4 Developer Recruits God of War Designer

Metroid Prime 4

Metroid Prime 4 rebooted development in early 2019 when Nintendo handed the project over to Retro Studios, developers of the original Metroid Prime trilogy. There's no telling how long it'll be before we see anything from the game, but Retro have been recruiting heavily over the last couple of years as development on the game ramps up.

Their most recent recruit is Jon Marcella, who joins Retro Studios after nearly 10 years at SIE Santa Monica studio. After working on God of War: Ascension as a designer, Marcella then worked on God of War (2018) as a Senior Game Designer. He has joined Retro as an Environment Designer on Metroid Prime 4.

There have been several reports these part few months of Retro tapping up talent from across the industry to join Metroid Prime 4's art team, from former Battlefield devs to Mirror's Edge devs to Halo devs and more.

Metroid Prime 4 is in development for the Switch, but has no set release date.

Among Us 2 Cancelled, Current Game Will Receive New Content

Among Us

Innersloth's Among Us is quite the fairy tale story, finding great success this year out of nowhere. The developer announced a sequel recently in order to add more features and move away from the first game's older codebase. However, it's now announced that Among Us 2 won't be happening.

It's reasoning is that despite issues with the code, the game is still very popular. To that end, it's looking to bolster the current game. "We have decided to cancel Among Us 2 and instead put all our focus into improving Among Us 1. All of the content we had planned for Among Us 2 will instead go into Among Us 1.

"This is probably the more difficult choice because it means going deep into the core code of the game and reworking several parts of it." In the meantime, the developer is working to resolve server issues, add colorblind support and introduce a Friends/Account system (which will admittedly "take some time"). If that weren't enough, a new stage is also in the works with the core them being Henry Stickman.

Among Us is currently available for iOS, Android and PC. It sees a space crew working to complete various tasks while two Impostors attempt to kill everyone. The crew can call various meetings to discuss and identify the Impostors. The game ends when all Impostors have been identified, all crew members are killed or the progress bar for the crew's work has been completed.

Starfield is a "Really Exciting Project", Features "Major Engine Rewrite" – Todd Howard

starfield

ZeniMax Media and Bethesda being acquired by Microsoft is arguably one of the bigger stories of the year, especially in how it opens up titles like Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 to potentially be timed exclusives. While both projects are still a ways off from release, Starfield is definitely closer. In a recent podcast which featured Bethesda's Pete Hines and Todd Howard along with Xbox's Phil Spencer and Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, Howard said that it's a "really exciting project."

Asked about it by Nelson, Howard responded that, "I think it's getting really good hype for a game no one has seen." He did confirm that Microsoft has seen a few things and added that "It's a really exciting project that we've been doing for a long time. Once we got on the new systems, the things we found we could do — and so it's a major engine rewrite on that game."

When can the general public see it? Howard said, "People who know me know I like to wait as long as possible to show stuff — so we're closer to showing it than we were at the beginning of this conversation. I think it's going to be something really, really special and we're excited to work with Xbox on that." It should be noted that "beginning of this conversation" likely refers to when Starfield was first announced. Sure, it doesn't pin down exactly when the game will be showcased but at least development is happening.

All we know about Starfield currently is that it's an RPG with a space setting. Microsoft has hinted at the game being available for Xbox Game Pass at launch while other rumors swell regarding its exclusivity to Xbox Series and PC. As always, we'll just have to wait for more information.

Kirby Fighters 2 is Out Now on Nintendo Switch

kirby fighters 2

Yesterday, a new Kirby game, Kirby Fighters 2, was leaked by Nintendo itself. Now, it has been officially confirmed. In fact, not only has it been officially confirmed, it's also out now and available to purchase via the Nintendo Switch eShop.

As its name suggests, Kirby Fighters 2 is, like its predecessor, a fighting game that sees Kirby in his many forms and other Kirby characters duking it out against each other. The game features 17 copy abilities to choose from in total (including the new Wrestler ability), as well as characters like Meta Knight, King Dedede, and more. On top of its multiplayer modes, the game also features a story mode. Players who have save data from Kirby Star Allies or Super Kirby Clash will also receive a unique item in the form of a rare hat.

Kirby Fighters 2 is available to purchase now for $19.99. It isn't the next mainline Kirby game many have been waiting for, but it should prove to be a fun little stopgap until then.

Horizon Zero Dawn Sold Over 700,000 Units on PC During Launch Month

horizon zero dawn

Horizon Zero Dawn released on PC in early August, bringing Guerrilla Games' excellent 2017 action-RPG to audiences outside of PlayStation for the first time. Though it didn't exactly enjoy the best launch, with the game suffering from a number of technical issues, Guerrilla Games have been releasing a steady stream of patches to bring the game up to expectations. And even with the less than stellar launch, it seems the open world game enjoyed immense success in its launch month as far as sales were concerned.

As per a report by SuperData, Horizon Zero Dawn sold 716,000 units on PC across all of August. Its launch month sales were nearly as large as those of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt when it released in 2015, and "significantly" larger than 2018's Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Meanwhile, it also saw much higher sales than Death Stranding on PC during its own launch month, which sold 477,000 units when it released on the platform in July.

Considering Horizon Zero Dawn's high sales on PC, it's no surprise that Sony are currently exploring bringing more of their first party PlayStation exclusives to PC as well.

Horizon Zero Dawn is available for PS4 and PC. Its sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, is in development for PS5 and PS4 and is slated to release some time in 2021.

Xbox Series X, Series S Will Allow You To Install Any Game Even Without Owning It

Xbox Series X_S

With a new generation of consoles comes a lot of new technology. While most are always about the power and graphics and what have you, despite the fact that those things largely don't matter as much as many believe they do, it's generally the smaller things that can make the biggest impression. For instance, this gen saw the popularizing of quick resume, something they are going further with in this upcoming gen. But there's one feature that's confirmed to be coming to the Xbox Series consoles that, I imagine, many physical users have been wanting on for a long time.

As detail via Twitter user and streamer Jerko Cilas via The Lords of Gaming website, you can now instill the data for any game that you want, even if you don't own it. If you're a digital only user, that's probably not a huge deal since digital pre-loads have become standard, but for those who are still buying discs, it's something of a godsend because it means you can pre-load the full game and any updates before getting the disc. It does have its use for digital as well, though, as you can download titles that you know will be on Game Pass or Games with Gold before it goes live and you don't have to wait to download.

As of now, this feature has only been confirmed to be coming to the Xbox Series X and Series S, of which pre-orders are live now for, and is only accessible through the Xbox Beta Android app at current. Whether this will also be available on Sony's PS5 remains to be seen, though fingers crossed it will.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout PC Launch Was The Biggest Since 2016's Overwatch, Per SuperData

fall guys

The game of the summer was Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. The unique battle royale game seemed to come out of basically nowhere to be a huge hit and a bonified meme machine that's still going strong. We know the launch was a good one, with huge downloads on the PS4 via PS Plus as well as selling over 7 million on Steam alone, but it seems it was even bigger than we thought.

Via monthly tracker SuperData, it seems that Fall Guys' launch on PC earned an incredible $185 million. For a reference point of just how big that is, that is the biggest PC launch in four full years since the launch of Overwatch in 2016. That is a lot of eggs and a lot of little bean people (things?) that's crossed PCs.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is available for both PlayStation 4 and PC. As of now there's no other platforms announced, but the developer has said they would love porting it elsewhere in the future.

Xbox Series X Is Designed To Run Quietly, Says Microsoft

xbox series x

Microsoft will be taking a unique approach to the next generation of consoles. The plan is to release two systems that play all the same games, one on the low-end in the form of the Series S and the other other on the high-end with the Series X. It's part of a strategy to hit both the mainstream and more hardcore audiences in one swipe. But with all that power, how quiet will the Series X be? Well, Microsoft claims pretty quiet.

This ending generation of systems had its share of jet engines. While Microsoft was largely fine in their redesigns, the original Xbox One definitely had some noise, and on the Sony side some of their PS4 designs have gotten loud. In sharing some more details about the Series X design, Microsoft says the system is designed with keeping the system running efficiently, but also quietly.

"The team got lots of great feedback from the customers they shared the Xbox Series X prototypes with, so it was time to dive into the work of solving the technical challenges that came with it. Xbox Series X features the most powerful System on Chip (SoC) ever from Xbox, and creatively cooling that chip with a single axial fan is what unlocked the solution to the form. By splitting the motherboard in half and bolting each side to the central aluminum chassis, the team was able to pull a huge amount of air through the entire system at a low enough acoustic level to keep the console running quietly and efficiently."

The Xbox One X is largely a pretty quiet system despite the power inside, so I'm inclined to believe the Series X will live up to the expectation. Let's just hope that Sony's PS5 follows suit. I imagine I'm not alone in wanting those jet engine consoles to be a thing of the past. The Xbox Series X and S launch on November 10th and pre-orders for both are live now.

Microsoft Will Not Be Announcing More Acquisitions At TGS 2020

Tokyo Game Show 2020

This week will see the beginning of the 2020 Tokyo Game Show. TGS has transitioned to a digital model, like many other conferences after the outbreak of COVID (at least for those that were not outright canceled), and it's sure to have tons of news and footage from anticipated titles. Microsoft will kick off the show, and well, after the recent news of them purchasing Bethesda shook the gaming world, many wondered what we would see from the company at the show. It's hard to say for sure, but at the very least, they aren't buying anyone.

On the official Xbox Twitter, the expectations of what to expect at TGS were retweeted, including the lack of news on next generation consoles. They gave a brief update to say that there will also be no news of a purchase here in, I imagine, an effort to cool those expecting them to buy Capcom or Sega or whoever.

Microsoft's weakest regions has always been Japan by far, and it's one they have never managed to get a good foothold in despite their best efforts. That is why there has always been speculation and talk of them buying a Japanese studio (though, technically, they now own one with Bethesda's Tango Games), but it's never panned out. TGS 2020 kicks off starting tomorrow, September 24th, and we'll keep you updated as news pours in.