html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd" AMD barely touched on its new RDNA 4 graphics cards during its CES 2025 keynote, not even showing the new GPUs during its presentation. Instead, details about the new graphics cards have largely been shared by AMDs board partners. Its a strange move, and one that left some Team Red fans worried about the new cards.But dont worry. The RX 9070 XT is coming soon.Recommended VideosHow soon? Well AMDs Frank Azor says were talking about weeks before the graphics cards show up, saying, When we say Q1, you know, were not talking about March 31st.Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming Before I let speculation get out of hand, I need to point out that weeks is still pretty broad. We could be talking about late January, early February, or even some time in March. But Azor assured me that AMD has everything ready to properly launch its next generation of graphics cards, saying that they were largely left out of the presentation due to time constraints. And in fairness to AMD, it announced a lot, from the Ryzen 9 9950X3D to the new range of Ryzen Z2 chips for handhelds.RelatedConfirming some online speculation, Azor also said that AMD was waiting to see what Nvidia would do. We now know about the $2,000 RTX 5090, as well as three other cards from Nvidias RTX 50-series range, and it seems AMD wanted to see where its new GPU would fall in comparison to the green giant. That makes sense, as AMD has confirmed its ditching the flagship battle with Nvidia this generation in order to focus on cards in the midrange.Still, its not clear where AMDs new GPU lands. Nvidias performance charts dont share a lot of detail, and most of the performance is obfuscated by Nvidias new DLSS 4 multi-frame generation. While noting that he has immense respect for Nvidia, Azor said the performance charts are essentially worthless. And on that point, frankly, I agree. The charts are as vague as they come, and they certainly dont tell the full story about what PC gamers can expect out of Nvidias new graphics cards.AMD has already said that theres nothing wrong with the RDNA 4 range. Words are paper thin, but I saw both the RX 9070 XT and AMDs much-improved FSR 4 in the flesh. If there are serious troubles with AMDs new graphics cards, I highly doubt theyd be subjected to the horrors of the CES show floor.Editors Recommendations

The investment aims to meet the increased demand for advanced cloud infrastructure and compute power, driven by generative AI, it said.

teamwork makes the dream work Ants vs. humans: Solving the piano-mover puzzle "People stand out for individual cognitive abilities while ants excel in cooperation." Jennifer Ouellette Jan 7, 2025 2:20 pm | 34 Ants maneuvering a T-shaped load across a maze Credit: Weizmann Institute of Science Ants maneuvering a T-shaped load across a maze Credit: Weizmann Institute of Science Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn more Who is better at maneuvering a large load through a maze, ants or humans? The piano-mover puzzle involves trying to transport an oddly shaped load across a constricted environment with various obstructions. It's one of several variations on classic computational motion-planning problems, a key element in numerous robotics applications. But what would happen if you pitted human beings against ants in a competition to solve the piano-mover puzzle?According to a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, humans have superior cognitive abilities and, hence, would be expected to outperform the ants. However, depriving people of verbal or nonverbal communication can level the playing field, with ants performing better in some trials. And while ants improved their cognitive performance when acting collectively as a group, the same did not hold true for humans.Co-author Ofer Feinerman of the Weizmann Institute of Science and colleagues saw an opportunity to use the piano-mover puzzle to shed light on group decision-making, as well as the question of whether it is better to cooperate as a group or maintain individuality. "It allows us to compare problem-solving skills and performances across group sizes and down to a single individual and also enables a comparison of collective problem-solving across species," the authors wrote.They decided to compare the performances of ants and humans because both species are social and can cooperate while transporting loads larger than themselves. In essence, "people stand out for individual cognitive abilities while ants excel in cooperation," the authors wrote.Feinerman et al. used crazy ants (Paratrechina longicornis) for their experiments, along with the human volunteers. They designed a physical version of the piano-movers puzzle involving a large t-shaped load that had to be maneuvered across a rectangular area divided into three chambers, connected via narrow slits. The load started in the first chamber on the left, and the ant and human subjects had to figure out how to transport it through the second chamber and into the third.This version of the puzzle intentionally posed challenges for both humans and ants and was designed to maintain a similar ratio of body size to load size. "People are challenged by the precise length assessments, mental rotations, and symmetry comprehension that are required to distinguish between viable moves and dead-ends," the authors wrote. As for the ants, "Their pheromone based communication takes neither load size versus door size nor load rotations into account, and thus deems a major part of their collective navigation strategy useless." The ants were manipulated into trying to solve the puzzle by making the t-shaped load resemble food.Collective cognition Humans maneuvering a T-shaped load across a maze. Credit: Weizmann Institute of Science The experiment was run multiple times with different variations: a single ant, a group of about seven ants, and a larger group of around 80 ants; and a single person, a group of six to nine people, and a larger group of 26 people. Humans were instructed to hold the load only by handles that were carefully placed to mimic how the object would be held by ants, and the handles had sensors for measuring the pulling force applied by each person. In some of the runs, humans were not allowed to communicate verbally or with gestures, and in some trials, they even wore masks and sunglasses to avoid nonverbal communication. Each trial run was videotaped for analysis.It should come as no surprise that humans had the edge as individuals, given their superior cognitive abilities; as communicating groups, they also easily beat the ants at finding the optimal solution. And large groups of ants performed much better than individual ants. However, the picture changed when humans were limited in their ability to communicate; large groups of ants often actually performed better than humans in several runs, thanks to their emergent collective memory that helped them avoid repeated mistakes and maintain a particular direction of motion.Humans, when told not to communicate, tended to "pull toward the lowest common denominator, the greedy option, as would a newly attached ant," the authors wrote. "Once the load starts moving, people in restricted communication groups simply align their pull with its motion. This abandonment of their individual cognitive abilities is reminiscent of the collective ant behavior." Communicating human groups, by contrast, were able to discuss and collectively decide on their next move.An ant colony is actually a family, said Feinerman. All the ants in the nest are sisters, and they have common interests. Its a tightly knit society in which cooperation greatly outweighs competition. Thats why an ant colony is sometimes referred to as a super-organism, sort of a living body composed of multiple cells that cooperate with one another. Our findings validate this vision. Weve shown that ants acting as a group are smarter, that for them the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In contrast, forming groups did not expand the cognitive abilities of humans. The famous wisdom of the crowd thats become so popular in the age of social networks didnt come to the fore in our experiments.PNAS, 2024. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2414274121 (About DOIs).Jennifer OuelletteSenior WriterJennifer OuelletteSenior Writer Jennifer is a senior reporter at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 34 Comments

Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, making it the third-largest gaming company.Activision Blizzard had some 10,000 employees as of 2022, but Microsoft has enacted mass layoffs.Here's the history of the company behind iconic games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.Activision Blizzard is one of the most well known publishers in the video game industry.Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, the company is best recognized for its popular franchises, including Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush Saga.Activision Blizzard made major international headlines following complaints about working conditions and its Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition in 2023. The all-cash deal saw shareholders of Activision receive a buyout of $95 per share. Following the purchase, Microsoft reported revenue from its Xbox division increased 61% by January 2024.Here's everything to know about the creation of Activision Blizzard, its successes, and the many controversies that have dogged the company over the years.The merger that created Activision BlizzardActivision Blizzard was formed in 2008 through the merger of Activision and Vivdeni Games. The Activision name dates back to 1979 when the previous company became the first independent, third-party console video game developer. The "Blizzard" portion of the company's name comes from Vivendi Games' subsidiary, Blizzard Entertainment.Following the merger, most of Vivendi Games' subsidiaries were shuttered, except for Blizzard Entertainment. Their games were either discontinued, published by other studios, or retrained and published by Activision Blizzard.In 2010, the studio Bungie entered into a 10-year, $500 million publishing deal with Activision Blizzard with the main goal of turning the "Destiny" franchise into a major franchise. The deal ended a year early in 2019, and Bungie split from Activision Blizzard on what appeared to be amicable terms that allowed Bungie to retain the publishing rights for the "Destiny" franchise.In 2022, the state of California filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, alleging widespread harassment of female employees and a "pervasive frat boy" culture. More than 1,000 Activision Blizzard employees signed a petition calling for CEO Bobby Kotick to resign. Even PlayStation head Jim Ryan and Xbox head Phil Spencer criticized Activision when reports emerged that Kotick personally intervened to save the job of a senior staff member the company's human resources department wanted to fire over sexual harassment allegations. Amid a major lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, over 1,000 employees called for CEO Bobby Kotick's resignation. Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair The Microsoft acquisitionWhen Microsoft declared its intent to buy Activision Blizzard, it said Activision was key to providing the "building blocks for the metaverse." Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella later said in an investor conference call that the company sees the metaverse as "a collection of communities and individual identities anchored in strong content franchises accessible on every device."In an effort to assuage regulator concerns, Microsoft and Sony struck a binding 10-year deal in the summer of 2023 to keep the Call of Duty franchise available on PlayStation consoles. Microsoft vice chair Brad Smith declared that the company "remains focused on ensuring that Call of Duty remains available on more platforms and for more consumers than ever before."The lawsuit brought by the state of California was settled for $54 million in 2023, and the settlement found the sexual harassment claims unfounded and cleared Kotick of any wrongdoing. Initially, it was reported that following the closure of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Kotick would stay on as CEO of the soon-to-be subsidiary. However, he ultimately ended up leaving the company upon the deal's completion.Microsoft's acquisition faced legal challenges from the FTC and European regulators but was ultimately allowed to proceed, making Microsoft the third-largest video game company and bolstering the company's Xbox division, providing access to Activision Blizzard's extensive catalog of games and franchises.As part of the deal, Activision's estimated 10,000 employees joined Microsoft under its Xbox division. Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard is its third purchase of a video game developer, following its previous acquisitions of Mojang, the maker of Minecraft, in 2014 for $2.5 billion, and ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, in 2021 for $7.5 billion.Layoffs in the post-pandemic landscape Activision Blizzard and the rest of the gaming sector has struggled to adjust to the post-pandemic landscape with plummeting sales and shrinking player bases. Daniel Boczarski/WireImage via Getty Images Despite Microsoft's market cap hitting a record-high $3 trillion in January 2024, the company laid off 1,900 workers across Activision, Xbox, and holding company ZeniMax. Activision Blizzard was reportedly the most affected by the layoffs, despite Microsoft earnings calls showing that Activision Blizzard generated billions of dollars in revenue throughout 2024.These Microsoft layoffs came after after the company enacted 10,000 job cuts in January 2022 and a further 1,000 that July. In September 2024, Microsoft laid off another 650 employees from its Xbox division, with the job cuts predominantly across its corporate and support roles.These job cuts come as the tech and gaming industries face significant challenges: plummeting sales, shrinking player bases, and rising competition. Companies across the sector are adjusting to the post-pandemic landscape, where the explosive growth in gaming seen during the lockdowns has returned to more pre-pandemic levels.

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Razer brought a bunch of new gaming hardware and accessories to show off at CES 2025 this week, including two big additions to its gaming chair lineup. The first of these gaming chair announcements is the Project Arielle Fan System, a bladeless fan add-on for Razer's Fujin and Fujin Pro mesh gaming chairs.The Project Arielle fan attaches to the Fujin and Fujin Pro backrests and, according to Razer's press release, can reduce the perceived temperature by between 2 to 5 degrees Celsius (roughly 3.5 to 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit) with fan noise "as soft as a whisper." It also features energy-efficient heaters that can deliver warm air up to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), making it helpful in any environment. Temperature and fan speeds are controlled via a touch panel on the side of the seat, and it can be easily attached or removed from the chair thanks to a quick-release connection.Razer's Project AriellePricing and release date information has not been revealed, though Razer is demoing Project Arielle in person at its CES 2025 booth, so we expect the fan add-on to launch in the near future. In the meantime, the Razer Fujin Pro is available now, starting at $1,050 at Razer's online store. The standard Razer Fujin gaming chair is available for a 25% discount at Amazon, which drops the price from $650 to $500. Both models feature similar mesh materials and chair dimensions, but the standard Fujin lacks a few of the features of the Fujin Pro, including a headrest. Luckily, there's an optional headrest add-on for the Fujin available for $130 at Best Buy.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Nvidia revealed its next generation of graphics cards, the GeForce RTX 50-series, at CES this week. There are four new GPUs in the lineup: the Geforce RTX 5090, 5080, 5070, and 5070 Ti.The flagship card, the RTX 5090, is priced at $2,000, and Nvidia claims it's twice as powerful as the RTX 4090 but requires a 1,000-watt power supply--a huge leap from the RTX 4090's 450W baseline power draw. Despite its power demands, the RTX 5090 is more compact than its predecessor, fitting into smaller PC builds.The slimmer size and higher performance are true of all the cards in the lineup, with Nvidia claiming the $1,000 RTX 5080 to be twice as fast as the RTX 4080. The budget-priced $550 RTX 5070 offers performance comparable to the RTX 4090, at nearly a third of the price. The 5070 Ti, meanwhile, sits between the 5070 and 5080 in terms of price ($750) and performance.Continue Reading at GameSpot

Moreso than other games, open-world titles need to have an incredible amount of detail added to their setting. Every aspect of a setting's geography, culture, and unique elements - if it's in the playable area - needs to be thought of and considered. This kind of attention to detail - if done properly - can make for some truly impressive and immersive titles.

After what has felt like endless delays and false starts for the Masters of the Universe movie, it looks like the first live-action film in with these characters since 1987. And while quite a bit of the more minute details for this movie are still under wraps, it looks like the man who will play He-Man/Prince Adam, Nicholas Galitzine has shed a little light on the tone of the story.

A lot of RPGs are infamous for the immense depth and breadth of lore they contain. The genre is known for containing much denser games than other categories, and much of that is due to the complex and intricate storylines they weave. Fantasy RPGs, in particular, have a lot of lore to build since they're set in fantastical worlds with their own set of rules, societies, and magical systems unlike anything in the real world.