Twitch opens up its money-making tools to tens of thousands of non-Partnered channels

 On the heels of yesterday’s news about expanded subscription options for partners, video streaming site Twitch today announced another way for its creator community to generate revenue, with the launch of an Affiliate program. Explains the company, the new program will allow non-partnered video creators to gain access to a variety of tools that will allow them to make money from… Read More

Streamers flock to YouTube Live, but the money (and crowd) is still at Twitch

 YouTube Live is making impressive strides in catching up to incumbent Twitch, but it has a long way to go yet. On the bright side, it doesn’t look like they’ll run out of road: streaming looks to be a fairly sustainable business. Read More

Game over, man! The NES Classic is discontinued planet-wide

 Well, it was fun while it lasted. The NES Classic Edition (it went by several names, but you know what I mean) was the must-have item of the holidays and pretty much ever since, owing to short supply of the compact retro gaming console. And Nintendo just confirmed that it was indeed ending production of the device in Europe, the last region they were still officially available. Read More

StarCraft is now free, nearly 20 years after its release

 Have you always wanted to check out that StarCraft game you’d heard so much about, but somehow managed to go nearly 20 years without buying a copy? Good news! Nearly two decades after its 1998 release, StarCraft is now free. Legally! Read More

Everything Facebook launched at both days of F8 and why

 Typing with telepathy? Hearing through your skin? An augmented reality developer platform? These are just a few of the launches and demos Facebook showed off at the social network’s big F8 conference. Here’s an updated breakdown of each major announcement from both days of F8 and why they’re important to you and Facebook. Read More

Microsoft will reveal Project Scorpio Xbox console details at E3 on June 11

 Microsoft just sent out invites to members of the media for its big reveal of Xbox Project Scorpio, the upgraded console that will be the “first true 4K console for gamers” according to the company. We’ve long expected E3’s press event to be the big consumer debut for Scorpio, but Microsoft spelled out that it will indeed be the star of the show in a blog post on… Read More

PlayStation Vue adds ESL’s esportsTV to its internet TV lineup

 PlayStation’s streaming TV service Vue is getting content that could be very near and dear to many users’ hearts: ESL’s esportsTV. LA-based ESL counts itself the world’s largest esports company worldwide, and it esportsTV channel will broadcast 24/7 esports content via a linear channel for the first time ever in the U.S. The launch is coming soon, and will arrive in… Read More

Leaked Star Wars: Battlefront II trailer is visually stunning

 If you’re a fan of the Star Wars (many people are) then you may also be a fan of this trailer for Star Wars: Battlefront II, which just popped up a bit early on Vimeo. The trailer is amazing, showing action-packed sequences rendered using the in-game engine, which seems to be able to deliver top-notch visuals of the variety normally reserved for cutscenes. Perhaps you played Star Wars… Read More

Nintendo reveals Joy-Con battery grips and new color, standalone Switch dock

 Nintendo will offer a special battery grip accessory for its Joy-Con controller accessory, which will be offered in sets of two and add more life to the already considerable 20-hour runtime of the Joy-Cons using their built-in power. Nintendo is also going to add a new color option for Joy-Cons, a Neon Yellow that will make sure everyone knows you’re using a Switch and can’t… Read More

Farewell, NES Classic Edition

 Nintendo had a bonafide – and apparent surprise – hit on its hands with the NES Classic Edition. But like all good things, its time is done. This afternoon, the company confirmed with TechCrunch that, “Throughout April, NOA territories will receive the last shipments of Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition systems for this year.” It’s not… Read More

Unreal’s ‘photorealistic character sample’ is like a Rob Lowe from the uncanny valley

 Making the character models you see in games is a very involved process, and as a few recent titles have shown, the faces especially are hard as hell to do right. The folks behind Epic’s Unreal Engine, which powers more than a few of those games, have kindly offered a ‘photorealistic character sample’ — a Rob Lowe-looking dude who looks almost real enough to touch. Almost. Read More

Google’s AlphaGo AI to take on world’s top Go player in May

 After Google-owned DeepMind’s virtual Go champion AlphaGo took on and defeated one of the top-ranked human players in the world, it looks like Google wants to build some bridges, explore the AI-human interaction dynamic – and see if AlphaGo can take on the very best human Go player in the entire world. Google is partnering with the China Go Association and the Chinese Government… Read More

Minecraft is getting a Marketplace where creators can monetize their creations

 Minecraft is getting an update this spring that will add a number of new features, but the most dramatic might be the Minecraft Marketplace, a storefront where users can buy and sell in-game creations for real money. The Marketplace will offer maps, texture packs, skins, min-games and more, all curated by the Minecraft team. The launch catalog will feature selections from a handful of… Read More

Of course a venture capitalist was no match for CMU’s updated poker-playing AI

 Libratus, Carnegie Mellon’s poker-playing AI, is damn good. It easily routed four of the world’s best poker players back in January over 120,000 hands of No-Limit Texas Hold-um. So it comes as no surprise that a team of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and engineers playing against Lengpudashi, Libratus’ bigger, badder brother, would face a similar fate. Read More

The Xbox One Scorpio is a six-teraflop gaming beast

 Microsoft couldn’t wait until E3 in June to unveil the Scorpio, so the company shared some details with Digital Foundry and we now know all of Project Scorpio’s tech specs. As expected, it’s going to be by far the most powerful gaming console out there. The console GPU will be able to process six trillion floating point operations per second, or six teraflops for short. Read More

Disney just launched the new mobile-only version of Club Penguin

 Club Penguin Island, the mobile-only replacement for the original Club Penguin (which shut down last night) has launched. Started in 2005, Club Penguin was one of the first successful virtual worlds for children and, as they grew up, teens and adults. At its peak the platform had 200M users, and a few months ago was still seeing upwards of 5M visitors to the Club Penguin website each month.… Read More

Stealthy gaming company Wonder is ready to tease its new mystery hardware

 Wonder, the incredibly stealthy new gaming company, has quietly created a signup page for information and perks related to its plans for global domination of the gaming market from its Los Angeles headquarters. The company is calling its new campaign the “Alpha Program”, and folks that are interested can get updates on Wonder’s product, provide feedback, and get perks and… Read More

A look back on the golden age of Atari gaming

 This excerpt is from Jamie Lendino’s Breakout: How Atari 8-Bit Computers Defined a Generation, an amazing book that details with an obsessive’s eye the rise and fall of Atari 8-bit computers. In this chapter, he looks through a few of his favorite Atari games and brings the memories flooding back of long weekends spent twirling joysticks in the rising dawn of computer gaming. Read More