Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut is coming to PC! We at Nixxes are thrilled to collaborate with the talented team at Sucker Punch Productions who created this critically acclaimed open-world action adventure. We are excited to bring Jin's story to a new audience and to bring a Sucker Punch title to PC for the first time. The PC version of Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut includes the full game, the Iki Island expansion, and the cooperative online multiplayer Legends mode. For the past year, the team at Nixxes has been working hard to bring the Sucker Punch in-house engine technology to PC and implement PC features such as unlocked frame rates, a variety of graphics settings and presets, and customizable mouse and keyboard controls.

With ultrawide monitor support, you can take in the expansive terrain and ancient landmarks with a cinematic field of view. Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut on PC is fully optimized for 21:9 and 32:9 resolutions and even supports 48:9 resolutions for triple monitor setups. Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut on PC features the latest performance-enhancing technologies. NVIDIA DLSS 3 and AMD FSR 3 are available with both upscaling and frame generation options. Intel XeSS upscaling is also supported and if your hardware has headroom to spare, you can use NVIDIA DLAA or FSR 3 Native AA to further boost image quality.

Gamers love watching live streams, seeing their favorite players make incredible plays and get the wins - but what if we could take the action to the next level, and not just see and hear the stream, but feel it too? Imagine the new heights gamers can go to if they're enveloped in the game, the sights, the sounds and the sensations. The key to unlocking this dream is haptics, and at CES 2024, Razer turned this dream into reality with the unveiling of Project Esther - the World's First HD Haptics Gaming Cushion, powered by our latest innovation, Razer Sensa HD Haptics.

Streaming Haptics - bringing the viewer into the game: Razer is delighted to showcase, in partnership with global wireless, video, and AI research and development company InterDigital, the world's first MPEG haptics streaming experience at Mobile World Congress 2024. Showcased at InterDigital's booth at Hall 7 Stand 7B31 in a haptic-enhanced immersive streaming demo, this new gaming experience has to be felt to be believed. The demo will be shown on a Razer Sensa HD Haptics setup which includes the multi CES Award winning Project Esther, a modified version of the Razer Kraken HyperSense V3 headset, and an HD haptics controller, giving a total of 20 haptics endpoints, and will be streamed via InterDigital's contributions to MPEG haptic and immersive video codecs.

Sensit!, the leading innovator in haptic technology, is thrilled to announce the official market availability of the Feelbelt in the United States, introducing a new dimension to audio experiences. With its groundbreaking haptic feedback technology, Feelbelt is set to redefine how people enjoy sound and music.

The Feelbelt is a wearable device designed to enhance audio immersion by allowing users to feel the music, movies, and games they love. Unlike traditional audio devices that rely solely on sound, Feelbelt adds a tactile layer to the experience, providing users with a sense of touch that complements the audio they hear.

With each PlayStation 5 system software release, we've introduced new features designed to enhance the many ways you can access your favorite content, navigate your console, or create new gaming memories with friends. Today, we're thrilled to roll out a new PS5 system software beta that introduces new accessibility features as well as audio options that allow 3D Audio powered by Tempest 3D AudioTech to be enjoyed on compatible Dolby Atmos-enabled HDMI devices such as sound bars, TVs, or home theater systems. The beta also includes more options to quickly find games and console tips, new ways to connect with other players and customize your multiplayer sessions, and support for larger-capacity M.2 SSDs (up to 8 TB).

While beta access will be limited to invited participants in select countries*, we plan to release the update globally later this year. If you're selected to participate in the beta, you'll receive an email invitation today when it's available to download. Some features available during the beta phase may not make it into the final version or may see significant changes. Without further ado, here are some of the highlights from the beta release...

Hey everyone, today we are celebrating the launch of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC. Back in 2002, Insomniac Games released the first Ratchet & Clank game on PlayStation. It's been two decades since the series first evolved into an iconic franchise on PlayStation consoles, and now for the very first time, Ratchet and his friends and foes are making the jump to a new platform.

On behalf of everyone at Nixxes Software, we can't wait to hear about your experiences with Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC and look forward to seeing your Photo Mode results. You can help us find your posts by using the hashtag #RatchetPC when sharing your experiences and creations on social media.

When PlayStation VR2 released earlier this year, it offered players a chance to experience virtual game worlds bristling with detail and immersive features. PS VR2 was the culmination of several years of development, which included multiple prototypes and testing approaches. To learn more, we asked PS VR2's Product Manager Yasuo Takahashi about the development process of the innovative headset and PlayStation VR2 Sense Controller, and also gained insight into the various prototypes that were created as part of this process.

PlayStation Blog: When did development for the PS VR2 headset start?
Yasuo Takahashi: Research on future VR technology was being conducted even prior to the launch of the original PlayStation VR as part of our R&D efforts. After PS VR's launch in 2016, discussion around what the next generation of VR would look like began in earnest. We went back and reviewed those R&D findings and we started prototyping various technologies at the beginning of 2017. Early that same year, we began detailed conversations on what features should be implemented in the new product, and which specific technologies we should explore further.

Greetings everyone! I'm Jovan, Technical Artist at Ebb Software. The whole team here found joy in bringing you nightmarish experiences that will fully immerse you into somber tapestries. And today we're excited to reveal that our first game, Scorn, will come to PlayStation 5 later this year. Many of you here may be new to Scorn, so for those less familiar with the game, you are about to experience a horrific adventure like no other. Trapped and stranded in a strange biomechanical world, you must make your way through a civilization in decay, now inhabited with twisted and grotesque creatures. While you will be able to wield various weapons in the game, Scorn is not a shooter, and each encounter can quickly turn deadly. Ammo and life are scarce, and your wits will often advise you to avoid direct confrontation. Instead, to progress through this mesmerizing labyrinth, you will have to revive and activate abandoned contraptions, part machine, part flesh, all horror.

We like to compare it to the experience of a nightmare. Most often, nightmares are described as strong subjective experiences that can be intensely distressing and frightening, eliciting emotional responses in dreamers, and causing feelings of fear, anxiety, and terror. Scorn tries to offer these emotions to its players in a very subtle manner through a somber atmosphere and its gloomy corridors.

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today announced the release of the Interhaptics universal HD haptic SDK and directional haptics at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2023 in San Francisco. This free SDK release focuses on enabling a heightened immersive gaming experience, bringing audio and visual effects to life with HD haptic feedback that can now be completely customized through the Interhaptics SDK.

With today's announcement, Interhaptics, the leading haptic technology platform, has expanded its support to include PlayStation 5*, PlayStation 4, Meta Quest 2, X-input controllers, iOS, and Android devices for game engines such as Unity and Unreal Engine. Additionally, the haptic composer software has been upgraded to include in-app testing for DualSense wireless controllers for PS5 and select Razer HyperSense headsets. Interhaptics can now deploy HD haptics on over 5 billion devices across multiple ecosystems. Developers can sign up for the waiting list for the Razer Kraken V3 HyperSense Dev Kit with programmable directional HD haptics at the Interhaptics website.

Cooler Master, the high-performance component and peripherals brand, today announced it worked with D-BOX to produce its latest entry into the gaming chair market, The Motion 1 Haptic Gaming Chair. Cooler Master and D-BOX are currently present at the 2023 Game Developers Conference—GDC, taking place in San Francisco, from March 20 to 24, 2023. We invite all gaming studios to experience the Motion 1 haptic gaming chair at booth P1679 (Games from Quebec)

Motion 1 is the world's first haptic engine gaming chair developed in collaboration with D-BOX, a worldwide leader in haptic technology. Motion 1 is engineered to provide haptic feedback to your games and entertainment. Feel the bullets strafing your canopy in your favorite air battle movie, ocean waves crashing into your boat during a raid in Assassin's Creed Valhalla or the gentle tug as you accelerate in your favorite racing game. It's an entirely new dimension of realistic feedback that enhances your gaming and entertainment in a premium package replete with ergonomic comfort.

It's a laptop, but it can be anything—the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i has the conventional shape of a clamshell notebook, except that there's a second touchscreen where you'd expect the keyboard an trackpad to be. You get a folio-type silicone keyboard with physical keys that provide tactile feedback, or you can pull up an on-screen keyboard on either screen and type with haptic feedback. As a Yoga product, the hinge turns 360°, and at 180° it can become a dual-screen setup. The possibilities are endless.

Under the hood is an Intel Core i7 U-series "Raptor Lake-U" 15 W 2P+8E SoC with 16 GB LPDDR5X memory; NVMe Gen 4 SSD, integrated Iris Xe graphics, and an 80 WHr battery. Each of the two 13.3-inch touchscreens has a 16:10 aspect-ratio and 1920 x 1200 resolution. Comms include Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.2 (a 5G modem would be incredible).

Peratech, a tactile-sensing HMI company, and Innovobot Labs, an R&D and innovation design house, will unveil the new FusionPad Haptic Force-Enhanced Trackpad at CES in Las Vegas, January 5-8. FusionPad will greatly enhance the notebook user experience. Instead of just one click, it delivers a broad range of user interactions, including multiple clicks to expand functionality and fast, accurate haptic feedback to optimize control. It also eliminates false touch while typing.

FusionPad is thinner, allowing for a bigger battery and greater air flow to cool processors and improve overall performance. It is integration-ready and compatible with existing product engineering tools. It is also process and technology ready for AVL-approved supply chains.

TrendForce estimates that global shipments of VR devices will come to around 8.58 million units for 2022, showing a YoY drop of 5.3%. There are three notable factors behind the decline. First, the ongoing high inflation has been suppressing the consumer demand for end products this year. Second, VR brands have either opted to not release a new product this year or pushed back the schedule for releasing a new product. Lastly, the demand for Meta's Quest devices has been dampened by a significant pricing adjustment. As for 2023, TrendForce forecasts that global shipments of VR devices will bounce back to a total of 10.35 million units and show a YoY growth of 20.6%. New products including the Sony PS VR2 and the Meta Quest 3 are scheduled for release next year, so they are expected to be a significant demand driver.

Meta has been the most aggressive in committing resources into the VR/AR market. However, the effect of its attempt to offer hardware at a low price has been quite disproportionate to its massive investments in related technologies. Due to mounting cost pressure, Meta has adjusted its pricing strategy for Quest devices. The Meta Quest 2, in particular, is now priced at US$1,499, which is more than three times its previous price. On account of this price hike and its relatively short battery life, the Quest Pro will unlikely follow the footsteps of the Quest 2 with respect to maintaining a strong shipment growth momentum. TrendForce estimates that that shipments of the Quest Pro will reach just to the level of 250,000 units for 2022. Meta will have to wait until next year, when the Quest 3 hit the market, to again see a notable positive growth in its shipments of VR devices. TrendForce currently forecasts that Meta's shipments for 2023 will total around 7.25 million units.

HaptX Inc., the leading provider of realistic haptic technology, today announced the availability of pre-orders of the company's new HaptX Gloves G1, a ground-breaking haptic device optimized for the enterprise metaverse. HaptX has engineered HaptX Gloves G1 with the features most requested by HaptX customers, including improved ergonomics, multiple glove sizes, wireless mobility, new and improved haptic functionality, and multiplayer collaboration, all priced as low as $4,500 per pair - a fraction of the cost of the award-winning HaptX Gloves DK2.

"With HaptX Gloves G1, we're making it possible for all organizations to leverage our lifelike haptics," said Jake Rubin, Founder and CEO of HaptX. "Touch is the cornerstone of the next generation of human-machine interface technologies, and the opportunities are endless." HaptX Gloves G1 leverages advances in materials science and the latest manufacturing techniques to deliver the first haptic gloves that fit like a conventional glove. The Gloves' digits, palm, and wrist are soft and flexible for uninhibited dexterity and comfort. Available in four sizes (Small, Medium, Large, and Extra Large), these Gloves offer the best fit and performance for all adult hands. Inside the Gloves are hundreds of microfluidic actuators that physically displace your skin, so when you touch and interact with virtual objects, the objects feel real.

Tap Systems is excited to announce the release of the new TapXR wearable keyboard and controller. The TapXR is the first wrist-wearable device that allows users to type, input commands, and navigate menus. It allows fast, accurate, discreet, and eyes-free texting and control with any bluetooth device, including phones, tablets, smart TVs, and virtual and augmented reality headsets. TapXR works by sensing the user's finger taps on any surface, and decoding them into digital signals.

While conventional hand gestures are slow, error prone and fatiguing, tapping is fast, accurate, and does not cause visual or physical fatigue. Tap users have achieved typing speeds of over 70 words per minute using one hand. While hand tracking supports relatively few gestures and has no haptic feedback, TapXR has over 100 unique commands, and is inherently tactile.

Today, we shared our vision for the next era of the Windows PC, where the PC and the cloud intersect and tap into innovative AI technology that unlocks new experiences. So that each of us can participate, be seen, heard and express our creativity.

For nearly 40 years, the Windows PC has held a place at the center of our lives. It's contributed to new levels of productivity, kept us all connected, and unlocked our creativity and potential through innovations we couldn't have imagined when we first began this journey. Just think about how far we've come in how people interact with it. From the very first text-based keyboard input to the precision of point and click with the mouse, up to today, where touch, voice, pen and gestures all help people use the Windows PC more naturally and intuitively. From its inception, Surface has been a catalyst for that change.

Setting a new trend in elevating user experience of immersive entertainment, Cooler Master introduces Synk X - a cross-platform immersive haptic chair for a new level of immersion.

Presenting an amplified immersion for lifelike entertainment experience, Cooler Master Synk X creates a new way of immersing in the imaginary world. By converting sound waves into vibrations and providing real-time tactile experiences, Synk X does not simply immerse, but engages users in the virtual surrounding and atmosphere like never before.