Welcome to Tech Bytes! In this series, we bring the biggest news hitting the Tech and Gaming fields, getting them into a simple brief for you to quickly catch up on, so you’re up to speed over dinner and drinks.
As the year winds down, so does the tech and gaming industry as it preps for another year of announcements. Still, November 2022 has a couple of items to give! Check out what the month had in terms of news with our Tech Bytes roundup.
PlayStation VR2 gets launch date and price announcement
After revealing and teasing the PlayStation VR2 throughout the year, Sony has finally announced when their newest VR system will be available to buy.
22 February 2023 is when people can get their hands on the PSVR2, which will cost S$869. It is available to pre-order right now, and you can expect to get the VR headset along with the Sense controllers and stereo headphones.
Those eager to try out the VR system can opt for the PlayStation VR2 Horizon Call of the Mountain bundle, which includes a voucher code for the game and the items mentioned above. Separately, you can also get a charging station for the Sense controllers for S$69.90.
If you’ve been wanting to get into VR, or have been waiting to upgrade your original PlayStation VR system, February will be an exciting time, especially since more than 20 titles are expected to be available for the launch.
Witcher 1 remake is in the works
Just last month, CD PROJEKT RED laid out its development plans for the future. One of the projects unveiled was code-named Canis Majoris, which was teased about being a full-scale open-world RPG Witcher title that was separate from the upcoming new saga. Finally, this month, we now know what it is.
The studio revealed that Canis Majoris would be a remake of the first Witcher game. The game, which was first released in 2007, was CD PROJEKT RED’s first developed game and introduced the world to Geralt of Rivia. The series has since spawned a trilogy of games and a Netflix series.
The studio Fool’s Theory is working on the remake under the supervision of CD PROJEKT RED. It is a title being made from the ground up, using Epic Game’s latest Unreal Engine 5. Like the new saga, not much else has been divulged about The Witcher remake, so don’t expect the game to come out anytime soon.
RDNA 3 arrives with RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT
This month, AMD presented their newest generation of graphics cards, powered by the much-anticipated RDNA 3 architecture.
The two new graphics cards, RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT, make up AMD’s latest high-end gaming line and are slated to go up against NVIDIA’s recently released RTX 40-series cards. Both cards use a chiplet design which enables them to deliver up to 15% higher frequencies at up to 54% better power efficiency.
The 7900 XTX is the company’s flagship product and is advertised to be 1.7 times faster than the RX 6950 XT for 4K gaming, promising performance of 62fps in Cyberpunk 2077 with ray-tracing and AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) enabled. The 7900 XT is slightly less powerful but will still have 20GB of GDDR6 memory to help with its performance.
With RDNA 3, expect a 54% improvement in performance-per-watt compared to RDNA 2. The cards will also support DisplayPort 2.1, allowing higher refresh rates on 4K and 8K resolutions.
AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 Series graphics cards will be available from 13 December onwards, with the RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT priced at US$999 and US$899, respectively.
Control 2 in development
Remedy Entertainment released the excellent Control back in 2019 to rave reviews, and if you are a fan of the game, you’ll be glad to know that more is coming.
This month, the studio confirmed that a sequel is being made. It will again be published with the help of 505 Games and will be set to launch on the PC, PS5, and Xbox Series platforms. However, the game is still in an early concept stage, so it will be a while before gamers get to play it. To help ease the wait, Remedy has released a concept art image for the game.
In addition to Control 2, Remedy Entertainment is currently developing Alan Wake 2 and remakes for Max Payne and Max Payne 2.
Gears of War to get a movie and TV series
After Halo’s debut on the small screen this year, another one of Xbox’s iconic franchises will be given the Hollywood treatment.
Netflix announced they will bring Gears of War into live-action film form. Unfortunately, no details have been revealed, so we aren’t sure whether this movie will adapt the plot from the games or use an original story. Nevertheless, actor Dave Bautista from Guardians of the Galaxy will be keen to be involved, posting a cheeky video on his Twitter after the news dropped.
But that’s not all! Netflix will also be making an animated TV series about the game franchise. Likewise, not much information was let on about it. Still, the streaming giant confirms that it will be “an adult animated series”, relieving fans who might be afraid that the series’ signature violence will be toned down.
The Coalition, developers of the franchise’s recent titles, will work with Netflix on the film and television series adaptations.
This marks 2022 November’s edition of Tech Bytes, and we hope this roundup gives you insight into tech to be excited about. Check with us again in December 2022, as we bring you more byte-sized news every month!
Visuals courtesy of Sony PlayStation, CD PROJEKT RED, AMD, Remedy Entertainment, and Xbox.
