Tag Archives: COVID-19

We are less than two weeks away from the return of Dota 2's premier tournament, The International. Unfortunately, Valve's plans have hit a last minute roadblock, as a new surge of COVID-19 infections has forced the company to refund tickets.  Valve is pulling the plug on ticket sales for The …

Computex won't be returning to its normal format this year after all...

Throughout 2020 we saw many events affected by COVID-19 and the risk of potential spreading of the virus. As a consequence, some events opted to shift online, with others pushing the events back instead, and some simply cancelling outright – insteading focusing their efforts on the following year’s iteration. The …

Though many of SEGA’s Japan-focused games have historically seen staggered releases, with the Western release arriving months after its Japanese debut, the wait for Persona 5 Strikers’ localisation was longer than most. Though no specific reason was given at the time, one of the game’s voice actors has now confirmed …

When The Last of Us first launched in 2013, the notion of a modern global pandemic was nothing but fiction at the time. Now, as the entire world has been plunged into such a pandemic, the series’ creator’s annual fan event ‘Outbreak Day’ has taken on a different meaning. It …

CES 2020 was able to take place this year just ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic. That won't be the case for CES 2021 though, which will be an all-digital event due to continuing health concerns.  In an announcement today, the Consumer Electronics Show organisers announced the digital plan for CES …

Half-Life: Alyx has been out since March 2020 and you may have been wondering, what have the folks at Valve been up to since then? Well in the case of Gabe Newell, he's been a ‘COVID refugee' in New Zealand for the last few months and as a thank you …

During the early days of the COVID-19 global pandemic, many companies announced that production of their goods and services would be negatively impacted. One of these affected companies was Sony, who claimed at the time that it would be unlikely to match demand for the next-gen console’s launch, come its …

With the current global climate surrounding COVID-19 and social distancing, dozens of events have had to be either cancelled, delayed, or altered to fit an online format. Games Done Quick, the biannual speedrunning event for charity, has now announced that its Summer event will take place entirely online – though …

AMD has announced that it will donate AMD-powered computing systems from the AMD HPC Fund for COVID-19 research to a number of universities in the US – with a combined computation power of seven petaflops. The first universities to receive equipment from the AMD fund are New York University (NYU), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) …

Apple is expected to open up about 100 of its stores in the US this week. However, the majority of the stores will only offer “curbside pickup” while the others will have”walk-in service”. The stores that offer walk-in service will have a new set of rules to follow to curb …

With the effects of COVID-19 nearly all conventions and expos have had to adapt to the circumstances, be it by delaying proceedings, utilising an online format, or simply being outright cancelled. It seems as though Blizzard has opted to go with the latter in the case of its annual fan …

Seagate has announced that it will make its patents available as part of the Open COVID Pledge. The pledge grants free access to all of Seagate's patented technologies to help diagnose, prevent, contain and treat COVID-19.  The Open COVID Pledge is a call for companies to make their “intellectual property available free …

Back in April, as more and more people went into quarantine due to coronavirus, Netflix and other streaming services made adjustments to video quality in an effort to reduce bandwidth usage and avoid internet blackouts. Now, bitrates are slowly beginning to rise once again.  We are still some ways off …

The Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics, known as Nikhef, is dedicating the computation power from its freshly built computer cluster to the fight against COVID-19. The computer cluster is based on the Lenovo SR655 and consists of more than 3800 AMD compute cores and 31 terabytes of memory. Nikhef usually …

Shortly after yesterday's news that Paris Games Week has been cancelled, the organisers behind the Tokyo Game Show have also confirmed that there will be no physical event this year. The Tokyo Game Show was initially due to take place in late September.  This is the first time that TGS …

After cancelling the Game Developers Conference in March, the organisers behind the event turned their attention towards ‘GDC Summer’ instead, taking place in August. However, despite hopes of putting on an in-person event, GDC Summer will be shifting towards an ‘all digital’ approach. At this point, other events like Gamescom …

The games industry has rallied in the face of COVID-19, with many large studios and publishers donating to relief efforts. Yesterday, we learned that Humble Bundle had raised $6.5 million for four charities and today, Bethesda is also throwing in a $1 million donation, which will be split between Direct …

Humble Bundle has always been great at raising money for good causes, but the COVID-19 relief bundle seems to have been particularly successful. While the bundle was live, over 200,000 people dropped money on it, raising over $6.5 million for charity.  In this instance, 100% of the money from the …

Larian has had great success with the Early Access model, with both Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel using the system to garner feedback and greatly improve the final game. That same approach will be taken with Baldur’s Gate 3 later this year, although progress has been slowed by the …

Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service has unfortunately suffered from a number of setbacks recently. Though the service and its technology is sound, many publishers have opted to remove their games from the service. Perhaps as a token of appreciation to its subscribers, or possibly for other reasons, Nvidia has informed …

Though events taking place earlier in the year such as E3 and GDC had been cancelled or postponed due to fears surrounding COVID-19, it was unknown whether the latter half of the year would see a similar response, or whether companies were confident that the pandemic would be over by …

Razer is looking to help out during the coronavirus pandemic with a $50 million fund to support businesses impacted by the economic downturn. That $50 million fund will be deployed throughout 2020 with three main support arms. Razer Co-Founder and CEO, Min-Liang Tan, commented that there are “many growing implications …

With the current state of the world, a large number of countries have enacted some form of social distancing requirements, with the reasoning being to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 – the virus that has rapidly swept the globe. PlayStation, in an effort to encourage people to stay home, …

Since the release of the latest major expansion, Final Fantasy XIV has received a series of big patches adding new content to keep players engaged. Unfortunately, the development schedule is going to see a hit over the next few months due to COVID-19. Naoki Yoshida, director and producer of Final …

Intel is increasing its donation efforts to combat COVID-19 once again. Previously, the company donated $1 million to Red Cross and set up a $6 million relief fund to help support other organisations helping communities impacted by the virus. This week, Intel is also committing $50 million to the Pandemic …

Amazon Game Studios has been working on its first MMO, New World, for years now. There have been plenty of closed alpha and beta tests during that time and this year, the game is set to officially release. New World was originally due out in May, but due to the …

It seems as though the world currently can’t go a day without more news related to COVID-19. The effects of the virus have been global and have affected nearly every single industry. Though a number of games have already been delayed by studios due to COVID-19, it looks like many …

Folding@Home is making headlines through its rapid growth – going from 30 petaflops to over 1.5 exaflops in the matter of weeks. The software is aimed at those who have an idle desktop or laptop and are willing to donate their computing power. Now Vodafone Foundation and Imperial College London …

Nowadays it's hard to escape news related to COVID-19 – most of it being negative reports about the outbreak spreading further. However, there is also plenty of good news in connection to the virus, including how governments are working together with companies to help people, and how people are donating …