AMD is planning to bundle "Assassin's Creed: Valhalla" will 3rd generation Ryzen desktop processors in a yet-unannounced game bundle likely to go live on July 7, according to a VideoCardz report. Localized to select markets and retailers, the bundle will see AMD giving away coupons for the latest chapter in the Assassin's Creed universe, with retail Ryzen 7 3700X, Ryzen 7 3800X, Ryzen 7 3800XT, Ryzen 9 3900X, Ryzen 9 3900XT, and Ryzen 9 3950X. Interestingly, there's no release date for the game itself, besides a vague "Holiday 2020" as announced by Ubisoft, so it's likely that redeeming the game bundle coupon will simply add ownership of the game to your UPlay account (similar to a pre-order), which you can download/pre-load and play when the game is released.

Far Cry 6, the sequel to Ubisoft's popular franchise of Far Cry games, is supposedly launching on July 12th. Thanks to the report from Gamereactor.dk, they have obtained information that Ubisoft will unveil the latest game sequel at the Ubisoft Forward event. In translation, the website said: "The last [Ubisoft] game scheduled to be released before April (unless Ubisoft decides it's this game that should be postponed due to COVID-19 or that there are too many AAA releases in a fairly short window) is set to be a Far Cry. I don't want to ruin Ubisoft's plans by giving you all the information, but I can say with certainty that those of you who didn't like Far Cry 5's North American setting are likely to find this game more interesting when it's officially unveiled during Ubisoft Forward on July 12."

The game is said to be available sometime in 2021, however, that information could very well be not true, as the game launch is happening much earlier than that. It could be that Ubisoft is preparing to launch this with the wave of next-generation consoles, so we have to wait and see how it plays out.

Microsoft's next-generation Xbox Series X entertainment system has some pretty serious hardware specs, to support its lofty design goals of 4K UHD gaming at 60 Hz, with ray-tracing, and yet have 8K capability. It turns out that Microsoft isn't holding game developers to that 60 FPS number at 4K UHD, and that the minimum frame-rate is still 30 FPS. At lower resolutions such as Full HD, the console could offer high refresh-rate gaming. Apparently, the console natively displays 4K UHD at 60 Hz, and uses VESA adaptive-sync on TVs and monitors that support it; but game developers are free to cram in enough eye-candy to drive performance down to 30 FPS. This came to light when Ubisoft confirmed that "Assassin's Creed Valhalla" will run at 30 FPS on the Xbox Series X. "Developers always have flexibility in how they use the power, so a standard or common 60 FPS is not a mandate," said Aaron Greenberg, Xbox marketing head, in a Tweet Tuesday night.

As E3 2020 has been canceled due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, game developers and publishers have been scheduling their events to announce new games and more. Ubisoft will feature "exclusive game news, reveals and more" at their upcoming all-digital event "Ubisoft Forward". The event will live-streamed on YouTube and Twitch at 8 PM BST July 12th. Some games we are expecting to see showcased at the event include; Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Watch Dogs: Legion, Rainbow Six: Quarantine, and more.

In the latest episode of Inside Xbox, Microsoft showed off trailers for several new games including Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and Dirt 5. Alongside the new game trailers, Microsoft also published a list of over 140 publishers and studios all working on games for the new console. Big names such as 2K Games, Activision, Bethesda, Bungie, Electronic Arts, SEGA, Square Enix, and Ubisoft are all present along with countless smaller publishers and studios. The full list of publishers and studios can be found below.

A Viking raider named Eivor leads a group of people away from endless war in Norway, only to seek refuge in hostile 8th century England. A clash of civilizations ensues. In Assassin's Creed Valhalla, you lead deadly longship raids against rival Saxon strongholds for resources to build your settlement. "Raids will be more action-packed and brutal than anything Assassin's Creed has seen before, thanks to a visceral new combat system that lets you bash, dismember, and decapitate your foes," say the developers. Of course it wouldn't be an Assassin's Creed game without stealth assassination missions. Catch the world premiere trailer below.The world premiere trailer follows.

Ubisoft teased the next chapter in its feverishly popular Assassin's Creed franchise. Named Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the game is set in the Viking-era, with elements of both the land and the sea, and a heavy overhang of Norse mythology. Not much else is known except the very first teaser shot, which shows our protagonist - an axe-wielding Viking, with the game's two settings in the background. The sea setting shows a Viking armada sailing through choppy waters in a fjord. The other depicts a pitched battle on land. Ubisoft is scheduled to make a wider reveal of the game later today.

The current quarantine situation can be cut in two ways: as a major setback for your life, or as an opportunity. An opportunity, for instance, to mow down all the games you've got on backburner. To that end, and in case you're running low in Triple-AAA or quirky, interesting game experiments, the EPIC Games Store has now made available for free download both Ubisoft's Watch Dogs and Galactic Cafe's The Stanley Parable. Both offer a distinct gameplay experience, with EPIC thus catering to two completely different gamer demographics.

Watch Dogs is a well-known action-adventure RPG launched back in 2014, set in a fictionalized version of Chicago. Playing as Aiden Pierce, a hacker with a personal revenge motivation, you hack your way through security systems in a somewhat dystopian society. The game was not very well received, standing with a 77 score on Metacritic and a 4.9 user score (in no small part due to the considerable graphics downgrade seen between the showcased version and the final graphics the game shipped with). The Stanley parable, on the other hand, is a quirky first-person exploration game based on a mod to the Half Life 2 engine that seems set on exploring a quantum approach to storytelling. This one features a much healthier 88 score in Metacritic and an 8.0 in user score.

AMD today released their latest Radeon Software driver. Version 19.9.3 brings with it a much requested feature: support for Radeon Image Sharpening (RIS) on graphics cards based on the Vega architecture. It has been a sore point in the community for some time now how AMD's Vega, their high-performance architecture that offered greater performance than Polaris, was left in the dust in support for AMD's RIS, with only Navi (and then Polaris) users being able to benefit from the image quality-enhancing feature. Now, AMD has finally baked in driver support for that feature with Vega, so you can go on, install the latest driver, and see what it's all about.

Additionally to adding RIS support for Vega, this driver includes specific performance and stability optimizations for Ghost Recon Breakpoint, the online tactical shooter from Ubisoft whose release is slated for October 4th. You can rest assured that you will have the best gameplay experience AMD could muster for launch day with this particular set of drivers. Grab them in our downloads section.

Ubisoft's games SaaS (software as a service) subscription platform, UPlay+, has gone live in select markets, such as the UK. The month of September is completely free, and is charged £12.99 per month thereafter. Unlike Origin Access, UPlay+ isn't tiered, and you get full access to over 100 AAA titles from Ubisoft, including their premium editions and DLCs. UPlay+ subscribers also become eligible to early-access beta access to upcoming games. You also get SaaS essentials such as the ability to cancel your subscription at any time, and renew it later (along with your data intact). There's a catch to the September FFA - you need to provide your credit card details upfront, which UPlay authenticates with a £1 reversible charge. On October 1, the first charge for £12.99 takes place, and your subscription rolls on. Reddit members have reported teething troubles with the payment gateway such as failed credit card charges.

We've been covering the loot box controversy for a while on TechPowerUp now. Independently of which side of the fence you're on - that loot boxes are akin to gambling and thus unethical in some of their implementations, or just cold to the entire issue - it's likely good news for everyone that these so-called "surprise mechanics", as they've been called, will now see their odds being disclosed by console makers and publishers.

Ubisoft posted its FY2019-20 financial report recently, and made a very interesting disclosure: PC has surpassed PlayStation 4 to become Ubisoft's most revenue-generating platform. For the quarter ending June 2019, PC accounted for 34 percent of Ubisoft's "net bookings" (a unit of sale of a product or service). This figure stood at 24 percent last year. With PC at 34 percent, PlayStation 4 takes the second spot at 31 percent, Xbox One at 18 percent, and Switch at 5 percent.

The surge in revenues from PC are attributed to "Anno 1800" and the UPlay application that rivals Steam in providing direct sales, DRM, updates, and social networking for gamers. "The 34 percent was pushed by Anno, which is a PC-specific game, but even with that launch, we had a very good performance on PC overall," said CEO Yves Guillemot, in the post-results investors call. "Anno 1800" is distributed both on UPlay and Epic Games Store. Ubisoft will be pushing out two expansion packs for "Anno 1800" this year.

Today, Ubisoft announced Gods & MonstersTM, an all-new action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Quebec, the team behind Assassin's Creed Odyssey, will launch worldwide on February 25th, 2020. This open world fantasy adventure features a beautiful art style, and engages players in a fantastical world as they use godlike abilities to defeat famed mythological beasts and save the Greek gods in a heroic journey for the ages.

In Gods & Monsters players embody Fenyx, a forgotten hero on a quest to restore power to the Greek gods after it was stolen by Typhon, the deadliest creature in Greek mythology. Players will explore the Isle of the Blessed and prove their heroism as they face dangerous mythological creatures, including fearsome Gorgons, Harpies and mighty Cyclopes. Gifted with special powers from the gods of Olympus, players must overcome treacherous dungeons, challenging trials and perform heroic feats on their journey to save the gods.

Everyone likes free stuff, so why not enjoy a free copy of Ubisoft's STEEP game? Today Ubisoft announced on their Twitter page that they will be giving away free copies of the STEEP, Ubisoft's game focused on extreme snow sports. It requires you to have a Uplay account to redeem it for free. After getting the game you will be able to keep it forever. But there is a catch. I, for example, can't redeem the giveaway as I am not from the US. The giveaway seems to be targeted at US users exclusively.

Update: Several users on TechPowerUp Forums are reporting that they have redeemed the giveaway without being in the US. It is global. There must have been a problem when I checked it out.

STEEP is game about snow adventures such as snowboarding and sky-diving. Launched way back in the year 2016, it still is a good software everyone should try out. So if you are from the US and want to try some extreme snow adventures and dive deep into the world's mountains without leaving the comfort of your home, you can check the giveaway here. The giveaway will last until May 21st when it will officially end. If you have redeemed the game before that, you will be keeping it forever.

Ubisoft has announced Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint. In this new game, you play a "Ghost" - an elite special ops soldier who fights the "Wolves" as its main cause. Its another release in Tom Clancy series, this time following the steps and improving upon its previous release - Wildlands.

Update: The developer has commented on Twitter, that the game will be "always online" - there is no offline mode, which explains why AI-controlled bots on your team have been removed.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a military-like shooter set in an open world environment where you are constantly surrounded by threats. You are fighting the "Wolves", an ex-military group that has gone rogue. They are ready to use any means necessary to take you down. Nature is ruthless as well - there are things like slippery slopes where you can easily tumble down and lose health. However, the game action being set in the jungle, you can use many of nature's elements to hide when needed.

As the smoke clears on the events that unfolded on Monday at the Notre-Dame de Paris, we stand in solidarité with our fellow Parisians and everyone around the world moved by the devastation the fire caused. Notre-Dame is an integral part of Paris, a city to which we are deeply connected. Seeing the monument in peril like this affected us all.

In light of Monday's events, Ubisoft will be donating €500,000 to help with the restoration and reconstruction of the Cathedral. We encourage all of you who are interested to donate as well. In addition, we want to give everyone the chance to experience the majesty and beauty of Notre-Dame the best way we know how. For one week, we will be giving Assassin's Creed Unity away free on PC, for anyone who wants to enjoy it. You can download it now for Uplay PC.

News of Assassin's Creed III getting a remaster was met with lukewarm reception from the get go, primarily because the original game does not rank high in the preference of games in the series for most people. Personally, I thought it was an underrated game but does have a slow start that can put off many people who came to it after the excellent Ezio trilogy just before. The remaster itself also seemed to be more a color palette sweep-over than many suspected, with a faux-HDR effect at times that has had mixed reviews in the few short days since it has been made available. Many on Steam have also took to the review section to complain about bugs and launch issues, as well as the $39.99 pricing (although it is included for free with the season pass for Assassins Creed Odyssey at the same price point).

Ubisoft has since de-listed the original game from Uplay, and had the same done on Steam too as the original store page says. This is a standard business practice in cases where the publisher does not wish to have any confusion on what they intend to be the best gameplay experience henceforth, but things are less simple on the PC. Steam users, and others in general, were quick to point out that the remaster now is the only choice and at a much higher price than what the original went for, especially during a sale. Others made reference to PC remasters usually getting a free update, bringing out examples such as Bioshock 1 and 2. A combination of everything discussed here has in turn led to the game having mostly negative reviews on steam, and reviews by independent media outlets seem to also indicate a troubled future ahead for the remaster.

Ubisoft has pulled the upcoming entry to its smash-hit RTS franchise, "Anno 1800" from Steam. For the PC platform, the game will be available only through Ubisoft's own UPlay, and the Epic Games Store, which continues to vacuum AAA titles from Steam on the promise of higher revenue share for the game developers. Ubisoft is giving Steam fans a chance to put their money where their mouths are, though.

You will be able to pre-order "Anno 1800" on Steam until April 16. The pre-ordered game will remain in your Steam library, and you will receive updates for the game through Steam. Also, people who purchased the game on Steam will be able to play multiplayer with those who bought their copies through UPlay or Epic Games Store. This presents Steam fans with a unique opportunity to tell a big studio like Ubisoft what they want.

We knew this was coming, especially after Google's teaser from earlier this month. Project Stream was a proof-of-concept in collaboration with Ubisoft, to see whether AAA gaming was possible over the internet. Things were smooth most of the time in our own experience, but there remained questions over how the concept would translate over to a finished product, especially with infrastructure challenges on the client side of things. Google's keynote at GDC just wrapped up, and the main focus was Stadia- the now named cloud gaming service borne out of Project Stream.

Stadia is built with instant access in mind. An example demo came in the form of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which was used in the public test before. It is integrated with partner YouTube channels such that a trailer for a supported game would have an option to play said game, which would then launch immediately. Stadia is built with support from a wide partner network including AMD, Unity, id Software, and more, with details seen past the break.

When Steam hit critical mass in the mid 2000s, digital distribution of games was close to non-existent, Internet speeds were too low to transmit 8-10 GB games that would ship in DVDs, and game patching was a mess. Steam solved many of these problems by offering distribution, DRM, aftersales support (automatic updates), and even multiplayer services across its network. Steam didn't become popular on its own, though. Valve Software was mainly a game developer, and it marketed Steam by making its AAA smash-hits "Half Life 2" (and its episodes), "Counter Strike," and "Left 4 Dead," exclusive to the DRM platform. Even if you bought those games on DVDs, they would have to be installed and supported through a Steam account. Those games served as tech-demonstrators for Steam, and how efficient an all-encompassing DRM platform can work.

Steam maintained its dominance for a good 8-odd years until big game publishers such as EA and Ubisoft wised up to the concept of multi-brand distribution platforms Steam mastered. Steam operates on a revenue-sharing model. For every Dollar spent on a game, a percentage of the money is retained by Steam toward its services. EA and Ubisoft figured it wasn't rocket-science to copy Steam, and came up with their own platforms, EA Origin, and Ubisoft UPlay, both of which are multi-brand. They figured their capital-expenditure toward running these platforms was less than what they'd pay Steam at scale. EA restricted all its titles to Origin, while Ubisoft made some of its games available on Steam, even though UPlay would remain a concentric DRM layer to those games. Then something changed in 2018.

CORSAIR , a world leader in PC gaming peripherals and enthusiast components, today announced a collaboration with video game publisher Ubisoft and developer Massive Entertainment to incorporate dynamic, system-wide lighting integration into Tom Clancy's The Division 2, the upcoming sequel to 2016's massively popular, open world online shooter RPG, Tom Clancy's The Division . Through the use of CORSAIR iCUE software, PC players can enhance their gameplay experience and become fully immersed in the game with real-time lighting effects across all of their compatible CORSAIR components and peripherals.

Set seven months after a deadly virus was released in New York City, Tom Clancy's The Division 2 raises the stakes for players by launching them into a fractured and collapsing Washington D.C. - built as a one-to-one recreation of the city. In the wake of the virus, storms, flooding and subsequent chaos have radically transformed the city. From flooded urban areas to ravaged historic sites and landmarks, players will plunge into a dynamic open world with a wide variety of environments and biomes. As veteran Division agents, players are the last hope against the complete fall of society as enemy factions vie for control of the city. If Washington D.C. is lost, the entire nation falls.

The PC requirements for the upcoming Far Cry: New Dawn, a re-invented, re-visited post-apocalyptic interpretation of Far Cry 5's Montana, have been outed by the developer. Ubisoft has taken a Far Cry: Primal approach to development, it seems, and these are usually some of the more experimental Far Cry games (Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon also comes to mind). Read on after the break for the system requirements, but note that Ubisoft hasn't mentioned NVIDIA's new generation of RTX-enabled 2000-series graphics cards.

The Epic Games Store with its aggressive developer earnings program is drilling away at Steam's already-installed hegemony as the PC gaming platform of choice. A mere 12% royalty for the storefront means much more money goes back to the developers, and the more copies are sold of a given game, the bigger the profit will become. This is why some games have already even left Steam's shores to find a home on the Epic Games Store, and now, a AAA title in The Division 2 will be skipping Steam entirely. With launches on Ubisoft's own store and an 88% cut on the Epic store, Ubisoft will be looking to maximize their profits.

That part of the story is done; Ubisoft has also outed the system requirements for the PC version of The Division 2, which, for a minimum of 30 FPS at 1080p, will require either an AMD FX-6350 or Intel Core I5-2500K CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and 2 GB of video RAM on an AMD Radeon R9 270 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 670.

Anno 1602 will likely be a blast from the past for some of us, with the game initially launching all the way back in 1998. Now 20 years later, Ubisoft has decided to give the first game in this illustrious franchise away for free on Uplay until December 23rd. This cult classic brings a mix of city building and economy management with a liberal sprinkle of real-time strategy creating a unique title that defined a genre and still scratches that odd nostalgic itch today.

Of course, since the game is being made available on a digital platform, means improved support for modern operating systems including Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and 10. That said, you will need a Uplay account if you don't have one already and will need to redeem the game on Ubisoft's site. Considering the February release of Anno 1800 is fast approaching, now might be a good time to enjoy a classic while you wait. After all what do you have to lose? It is free.

Ubisoft has announced the latest installment in the Far Cry series. Titled "New Dawn", the new entry will retain the New Montana setting, with a twist: we are now 17 years into the future (with the baseline being the end of Far Cry 5). An apocalyptic event (a global nuclear catastrophe, naturally) has warped humanity's capabilities and way of living, and we'll get to see an all-new, re-skinned New Montana - it seems tons of pink and purple will make a major splash in this post-apocalyptic setting. Think of how Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon swapped over to a red color scheme, and you get the idea.

Overall, the game makes some changes to the overall Far Cry aesthetic. I'm curious to see how much Hope County has changed with the events that happened in-between games, but I'm slightly suspicious of a game within the same setting and with such a short development time - it's sort of a revisit on the Far Cry Primal formula. The new game drops February 15th, 2019.