Intel’s Cascade Lake family of Xeon parts hasn’t been in-market all that long, but there are rumors the company is queuing up a refresh cycle to introduce new parts at higher core counts and tweaked frequencies. The move is being read as a response to AMD’s 7nm Epyc CPUs. If true, it will better position Intel to compete against its rival throughout the rest of the year.
CRN has compiled data on the rumored launch (Intel isn’t speaking to the issue one way or the other), suggesting we’ll see the following CPUs:
Right now, the Xeon Bronze line tops out at six cores; now Intel will bump that product family up to eight. CPUs like the Xeon Silver 4216R still have 16 CPU cores, like the original 4216, but they reportedly bump TDP to 125W (from 100W) and increase the base clock by 100MHz, implying that the CPU will spend more time in its turbo configuration. The top-end Xeon Gold CPUs like the 6258R will match the current Xeon 8180 Platinum in core count.
Rumors also suggest that Intel is going to make significant adjustments to Xeon pricing that will bring it into line with Cascade Lake’s HEDT prices. I wouldn’t expect those prices to reach parity — even AMD’s server CPUs carry a small premium over their workstation parts, and Intel will follow suit — but we’ll probably see a price cut that brings these Xeon parts more in-line with the current realities of the market.
Every time AMD releases a new quarterly report, there are jitters in the investment market over the supposed performance of the server space. These new launches, if they come to pass, should put paid to that kind of concern. Intel does not change its server SKU pricing on a whim, and it certainly doesn’t cut data center CPU prices for no reason. For the past 2.5 years, AMD has offered server and workstation CPUs in the Epyc and Threadripper families that offered significant advantages over Xeon in certain workloads and competed with them well overall in both performance and performance per watt. Intel’s prices have remained fairly static. The market has validated this approach and rewarded the company with several monster quarters, so this was scarcely the worst tactic from Intel’s own perspective.
If Intel is adjusting its prices now, it’s because Epyc and Threadripper
are beginning to mount a more serious challenge to its market share. That doesn’t mean Intel is going to suddenly be driven out of these markets, but their CPU core counts and price per core sound like they could both be moving in the right direction a few weeks from now.
Warcraft 3: Reforged hasn’t gotten any more popular in the days since its release. The clamor has gotten bad enough that Blizzard has reportedly begun giving instant refunds to players who want them.
That’s the word from Reddit user krOnicLTD, who received a refund within a minute after applying for one and posted the information (and a handy link) to the Blizzard site. If you’ve been unhappy with the game, you can ask for your money back, no questions asked. Frustration with the title has been high for a number of reasons, ranging from Blizzard’s aggressive copyright position on fan mods to the fact that the version of Warcraft 3: Reforged that the company ultimately shipped bears little resemblance to the game it promised it was making. Because both Reforged and Warcraft 3 Classic now share a mandatory front-end client, you can’t play WC3:C with its original set of capabilities as a separate title at all.
Blizzard has posted an update to its forums, giving fans an idea where the game is headed. There’s a bug currently causing colors and shading to look different than intended, which will be fixed in the coming days. Portrait animations and UI fixes will also be implemented. The lack of leaderboards and clans will be fixed in a future update. Features like the Reign of Chaos ruleset and tournaments will not be returning after having been removed in mid-2019.
Regarding the content changes that it once telegraphed and then retreated from, Blizzard writes:
[T]he main takeaway is that the campaigns tell one of the classic stories in Warcraft history, and we want to preserve the true spirit of Warcraft III and allow players to relive these unforgettable moments as they were (albeit rebuilt with new animations and the higher fidelity art).
The problem I have with Warcraft 3: Reforged is that we’re stuck with a title halfway between a remaster (Starcraft) and an actual remake (say, Final Fantasy VII). What Blizzard ultimately did satisfies no one — and I can’t think of a better way to illustrate that then with the Illidan versus Arthas fight.
The original Illidan versus Arthas fight at the end of Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne was a giant case of Blizzard running out of time and dropping the ball. The company couldn’t build one of the cinematics it was known for in the time it had left, so it went with in-engine rendered cutscenes, instead. The result wasn’t all that great. It failed to communicate that Illidan had even survived his conflict with Arthas in the first place.
Here’s the original video:
Here’s the Warcraft 3: Reforged new video:
At first glance, the second video looks like the perfect antidote to the first. It’s detailed. It’s graphically modern. It shows an updated version of what Illidan and Arthas would have looked like. It’s also entirely unscored, nearly twice as long as the original (to little overall purpose), and changes a critical ending camera angle without fixing the miscommunication said camera angle created.
I’m referring, specifically, to the fact that Illidan didn’t appear to survive this encounter with Arthas, and it wasn’t clear he had until Blizzard confirmed his presence in World of Warcraft. You might think that if Blizzard was going to change how the encounter ends, they’d include some kind of shift to make it clear that Illidan wasn’t dead. A hand motion. A weak attempt to rise. Something.
They don’t. In the original, Illidan at least has a few jerky motions on the ground, as blood pools beneath him. In Reforged, he’s absolutely still and shot from the back. Between the two, I’d say he looks more implicitly dead in the reshoot than the old footage.
Furthermore, it makes no sense to extend this particular scene with a lot of power scaling — blue ice creeping up Frostmourne for Arthas, and a shot of Illidan drawing more heavily on his fel-empowered demonic half. These sorts of shots are a staple of live-action and animated films and TV shows, but you typically don’t show you two lengthy power-ups followed by one character instantly defeating the other.
The original scene is about a minute long, start to finish. The new scene runs 2:21. Of the ~1:21 of new footage, nearly 30 seconds of it is just Arthas and Illidan powering up. Then Arthas swings once, there’s a bright line of light, and Illidan collapses into a heap. The entire video clip feels off-balance. If you told me this was a student project, I’d stand up and applaud, but compared with Blizzard’s other cinematic work, it’s… not entirely what I would have expected. The best take on the fight that I’ve seen actually is a fan-made remaster that sticks closer to the original but seems to have done a better job maintaining a sense of action.
I feel like this set of videos collectively summarizes what seems so off about Reforged. The new Blizzard version is aesthetically, superficially, everything we’ve wanted as an ending for the game, but it doesn’t feel like it received the same amount of attention Blizzard has put into other projects. Instead of being sub-par graphically, it’s sub-par audibly. It feels as if Blizzard went into the cinematic knowing that they wanted to make it better, but without wanting to make meaningful changes. In attempting to have it both ways, it created a product that’s neither #NoChanges in relation to WC3, nor expands the lore and universe in a way that appeals to gamers who wanted to see the older title brought in line with more recent releases.
For better or worse, this is the Warcraft 3 we got, and it appears to be the only Warcraft 3 we’re getting.
The US and Russia have long employed spy satellites to keep tabs on the world, but what about keeping tabs on the satellites? A pair of satellites are currently locked in a bizarre dance as a Russian probe trails its US counterpart for unknown reasons. Russia swears the satellite is completely harmless, but experts aren’t buying that. We might be looking at the first confirmed case of satellite-on-satellite spying.
Unlike most elements of spycraft, the general public can follow the movements of spy satellites in orbit. We may not know what they’re doing, but it’s possible to make some inferences based on how they maneuver. Russia’s Kosmos 2542 probe is doing some unusual maneuvering indeed.
Before the last few weeks of January, Kosmos 2542 and a US satellite known as USA 245 were on similar orbital planes, but they only crossed paths once every 11 or 12 days. Instead of drifting apart as usual, Kosmos 2542 executed a series of maneuvers that brought it in sync with the US satellite. Purdue University graduate student Michael Thompson spotted the maneuvers and posted details on Twitter. According to Thompson, Kosmos 2542 fired its thrusters on January 20, 21, and 22 to take up a position just 186 miles away from USA 245.
Russia’s official story is that Kosmos 2542 is in orbit to test satellite inspection technologies. The idea is that a probe could carry a smaller sub-satellite that it deploys for imaging and inspection. Kosmos 2542 does appear to have a small companion spacecraft, but observers can’t ascertain if it has any function. Regardless of whether that sub-satellite does anything, Russia’s explanation doesn’t explain why the spacecraft would waste precious fuel to follow another satellite.
The most recent close approach took place on January 21st, but instead of then drifting away as usual, Cosmos 2542 performed a series of maneuvers on the 20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd to match the period of USA 245. pic.twitter.com/jSMsytae4X
Aerospace engineers speculate that Russia may be shadowing USA 245 in order to gather data about its mission. By observing the satellite, Kosmos 2542 might be able to determine the capabilities of its cameras. With a radio-frequency probe, it could even listen for faint signals from USA 245, which could tell the Kremlin when the satellite is taking photos and what kind of data processing it does on-board.
There aren’t any laws governing close approaches like this in space. So, the US has no legal recourse, nor a way to ward off the outer space interloper. Some countries have tested weapons that can destroy satellites, but that risks creating a shower of debris that can damage other spacecraft. No one has been bold enough to start shooting down another country’s satellites… yet.
Samsung designed its Galaxy Tab S6 tablets with Qualcomm’s 855 SoC. This is the same SoC that’s used inside of many flagship smartphones today, and it guarantees the tablet will have excellent performance. Right now you can get it from Amazon marked down from $729.99 to $583.99.
This version of Dell’s XPS 15 notebook features a quad-core Intel Core i5 processor and a 1080p display with 100 percent coverage of the sRGB color gamut. This gives it the features necessary for everyday image editing. Currently, you can get it from Dell marked down from $1,099.99 to $1,549.99.
Spring is right around the corner, and so is the launch of Nintendo’s new Animal Crossing: New Horizons video game. Pre-order this farm life inspired kids game along with an Animal-Crossing-themed Nintendo Switch console now from Walmart for just $299.00.
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Current-generation console sales have plunged more quickly than anticipated, as potential customers apparently hold off on purchases ahead of this year’s reveal. That’s the consistent messaging we’ve heard from multiple companies in the game console market, including AMD, GameStop, and now Sony itself. Hardware sales are down across the industry by larger amounts than we saw at this point in the previous console cycle.
That’s the takeaway from Sony’s most recent quarterly earnings conference call. Sony’s gaming division revenue fell 20 percent year-on-year, primarily due to the impact of decreased hardware sales. Software was a more complicated situation — revenue was down, yes, but while third-party sales were down, first-party sales were up (but not enough to meet expectations). Growth in PlayStation Plus subscribers was also positive, up 2.5M to 38.8M over the past 12 months, and helped to offset some of the software decline.
Sony is adjusting its Q4 2019 forecast downwards by $459M, or about three percent. Sony’s fiscal year Q3 took place from October – December, so we’re currently in Q4 FY 2019 and Q1 CY 2020 as far as the Japanese company is concerned. Calendars are weird.
Looking Ahead to the PS5
Sony isn’t willing to talk about the PS5 yet (not on its earnings calls, anyway), but the company does expect game revenue to surge in the back half of the year as the new console comes to market. The situation around sales predictions for the Xbox Series X and PS5 is quite different than it was at this point in the previous console cycle. By early 2013, we’d had several years of explosive smartphone popularity. Tablets had hit the market to significant acclaim. Micro-consoles like Ouya hadn’t failed yet. All in all, a lot of people were asking if the era of console gaming was over, to be replaced by mobile games and streaming services.
Seven years later, the verdict on mobile replacing console is definitely “No,” and streaming services haven’t managed the trick either, though Google and Nvidia are both taking a crack at it. Sony is heading into the PS5 era as the definitive winner of the sales race against Microsoft and the overall revenue competition. Microsoft has arguably spent a lot of the past seven years unifying its ecosystem between the Xbox and PC, and this seems as though it will continue with the Xbox Series X.
My own minor bet, as far as the PS5 is concerned, is that Sony will find a way to make the Final Fantasy VII Remake a PS5 near-launch title. While FF7 was not a PS1 launch title — the console hit shelves on December 3, 1994, while FF7 debuted January 31, 1997 — it became one of the most definitive PS1 titles ever made and the highest-selling Final Fantasy game ever. After repeated delays, Sony is releasing the first section of Final Fantasy VII’s remake on the PS4 (as promised) a matter of months before they debut the PS5.
Square Enix’s president has already made comments implying that the game will be playable on both generations of hardware, but it seems incredibly unlikely that Sony wouldn’t push the company to build a version that could showcase the graphics on the PS5 in the same way the original did for the PS1.
So here’s my bet: At some point, Sony announces that there will be a PS5-specific version of the game. Existing PlayStation 4 owners who buy the PS4 variant, however, will receive a free upgrade to the PS5 flavor when they buy the new system. Make that offer good for a significant period of time, like, say, the first year of the console’s life, and you’ve got Final Fantasy VII Remake as a virtual pack-in title for devoted fans and as a retail carrot for gamers who want to play it but would rather wait and buy it with the console when the latter launches.
Granted, that could be willful fanboy projection on my part. I’ve been downright excited at the rumors of a PC release for this one.
Several game streaming services have come and gone while Nvidia has been fiddling with its GeForce Now cloud gaming platform. It tried to launch once in 2015, but ended up going back to the drawing board with a new beta program. That program is over now, and the new GeForce Now is available in North America and Europe. Confirming last week’s rumor, this service will start at just $5 per month, and you can play for an hour at a time for free.
The technology behind GeForce Now is similar to Microsoft’s xCloud or Google’s Stadia. Nvidia’s servers render the games and send the video to your devices. That means you can play high-end PC games on a PC with integrated video or a smartphone. The most important requirement is a fast internet connection. Nvidia recommends at least 15Mbps for 720p and 25Mbps for 1080p, both of which are a bit higher than Google’s Stadia recommendations.
Nvidia’s ace in the hole is the game library: You can bring games you already have to GeForce Now from services like Steam, Uplay, and Battle.net. Simply link your profiles, and GeForce Now instantly has copies of your purchased games available to play. Unfortunately, it won’t beallgames. GeForce Now supports several hundred titles, including all the big names like Fortnite, StarCraft II, League of Legends, and more.
You can head over to the Nvidia website and sign up for a free account to start playing instantly. The free tier of service comes with several important limitations. Perhaps most importantly, the free service has “standard access” to servers. Paying subscribers won’t have to wait, but free users could be left twiddling their thumbs while they wait for a slot on the server. Your sessions are also limited to one hour. After that, you’ll have to jump into the queue again. Paying customers get longer sessions — Nvidia says it’s currently limited to six hours, but you can start a new session immediately after one ends.
For the launch, Nvidia is offering “Founders” accounts priced at $4.99 per month for 12 months. That comes with three months free. So, you’re looking at $45 for the full year. In addition to the longer sessions and priority access, Founders also get RTX ray-tracing support in games. Nvidia hasn’t clarified how the pricing will change later, but the $5 asking price is half of Google Stadia, and you probably already have games that work on GeForce Now.
Key competitors like Microsoft and Google keep coming, yet for all their in-roads, there’s still only one name that stands head and shoulders above all others in the exploding web services field.
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