Gaming News - Page 125

DnD fans rejoice: Baldur's Gate III will keep you busy for a long, long time.

It's been two decades since the last mainline Baldur's Gate game, and Larian is making up for the lost time with Baldur's Gate III. The developers are creating one of the largest epic fantasy games ever made in terms of scope, cinematics, dynamism, and sheer volume of things to do. The game is so big that a rushed playthrough will take 80 hours...and it can be much longer if you engage more in the world.

"People ask...how much variety is there in a playthrough of Baldur's Gate III. How long is it, how many different ways can it go.

The price increase for Xbox Game Pass on console has gone into effect, and Microsoft has also adjusted the ratios for Xbox Live -> Game Pass subscription conversions.

Microsoft's value-oriented Xbox Game Pass subscription is now officially more expensive on console. The price hike is well-timed; Microsoft lawyers have said that Xbox has no plans to increase Game Pass if it should be allowed to merger with Activision, so the increase is happening before the potential merger. The price hike also precedes Starfield's release in September.

The base Xbox Game Pass subscription is now priced at $10.99 per month on console, representing a $1 price increase, whereas Game Pass Ultimate has jumped by $2 from $14.99 to the new $16.99/month price. The PC version of Xbox Game Pass has not been changed and remains $9.99/month.

In a pre-hearing findings of fact document, the Federal Trade Commission says that both Microsoft and Activision have identified "large financial benefits from bringing Activision content to Xbox Game Pass."

As Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley prepares her decision on the federal FTC v Microsoft preliminary injunction case, we thought it pertinent to scan through the various documents that the FTC and Microsoft have entered in the case's docket. The principal filings include what is called findings of fact, which essentially sees both FTC and Microsoft/Activision laying out the groundwork arguments for their sides of the case.

In the FTC's findings of fact document (Doc. #175), the Commission outlines interesting contextual information surrounding Activision's views on Xbox Game Pass.

NetherRealm revealed a new Mortal Kombat 1 trailer during the KombatKast stream today, showcasing some outrageous over-the-top brutality while confirming some new characters.

There really is nothing like a new Mortal Kombat game and MK1 is no exception. The franchise manages to blend humor, gratuitously absurd violence, and a serious compelling storyline all into one chaotic package. The latest Mortal Kombat 1 gameplay trailer showed off all of these elements, complete with a lot of middle fingers and swagger from Johnny Cage, a literal chest-chainsaw from Cyrax that just annihilated poor Kenshi, and some other devastating attacks.

The trailer delivered everything you'd want from Mortal Kombat footage, alongside some awesome reveals of classic returning characters. Gamers got to see Smoke unleash devastating combos with ninja accuracy, Cyrax explode some high-tech grenades that cooked brains, and Rain use shamanic sorcery to fight fire with water and summon brutal storms, and Frost, who attaches glacial spikes to her feet and performs a double jump-kick that pierces right through hapless Johnny Cage's chest.

IO Interactive has opened its fifth studio that will help with ambitious new projects like the 007 James Bond video game.

Hitman developer IO Interactive has launched a brand new studio in Brighton, England as it expands its ranks to assist with production in some major upcoming games. The independent developer currently has two big project sin the works, including the anticipated Project 007 James Bond origin story game, as well as Project Fantasy (aka Project Dragon), a new RPG that's said to be in the works for Xbox.

The Brighton-based branch joins other studios located in Copenhagen, Denmark, Malmo, Sweden, Barcelona, Spain, and Istanbul, Turkey. IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak says that the central idea with the company's myriad of studios is to have around 140-150 people in each branch. Abrak wants to avoid having many hundreds of people in a single location--Abrak tells GamesIndustry.biz that he doesn't want IO Interactive to feel like a video games factory.

Nintendo continues to increase its research and development (R&D) budget as its next-generation Switch console looms on the horizon.

Nintendo is currently working on its new console, which is believed to be an upgraded Switch handheld hybrid that allows for upscaled 4K gaming. A lot is unknown about the device--publishers like Activision don't even know specifications yet--but there's rumors of devkits being sent out to select developers. The new Switch, dubbed the Switch+, Super Switch, and Switch 4K, may be powered by a new Tegra Orin processor accompanied by the enhanced Switch OLED dock which has been updated to support 4K video output.

Speculation aside, we do know that Nintendo is steadily increasing its R&D budget to prepare for new hardware, software, and services. According to Nintendo's 2023 annual report, the company spent around $827 million on R&D throughout Fiscal Year 2023. This budget is for the entirety of Nintendo's operations and is not just for the next-gen Switch.

Capcom tells investors that it will take 'great care' in how it approaches new Mega Man game releases.

Mega Man was the first game that Capcom released on home consoles and the franchise remains a prized IP for the publisher. That's why Capcom has no real interest in rushing out new Mega Man products out the door in order to maximize sales. Even though Capcom wants to eventually hit 100 million game sales per year, the company still wants to be cautious with its revered platformer series.

In a recent shareholders meeting, Capcom management held a Q&A session regarding the future of the business. Investors were interested in knowing where Mega Man goes from here--will we see another mainline release?

Cheaters are an ever-present thorn in the side when it comes to online games, but Ubisoft has a seemingly effective way to tackle the menace they present called 'QB' technology - plus the company has been honing another feature (MouseTrap) to weed out mouse and keyboard players on console.

First off, let's look at QB, and as PC Gamer reports, this is attacking the problem at its source - namely the developers of cheats, and making life so difficult and tedious for them that they just give up.

We know very little about this QB tech, which is for the PC platform only, with Ubisoft kicking off with the idea back in November 2022, as part of a raft of anti-cheat initiatives.

One of the most popular video games in history is returning to Xbox Game Pass for the third time.

Today, Microsoft made a surprise announcement: GTA V is back on Xbox Game Pass, and it includes the higher-end Xbox Series X/S upgraded version as well. This marks the third time that Rockstar's best-selling Grand Theft Auto has been on the platform, and it really underlines how some publishers see the subscription service.

We've heard a lot of negative aspects about Xbox Game Pass and how the service cannibalizes game sales. Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan even went so far as to say that Game Pass is 'value-destructive.' While cannibalization is indeed an undesirable effect of the service, Xbox Game Pass can actually help elongate and boost earnings for older games. That's especially true for evergreen catalog games like GTA V, where a series of rotating promos on subscription services has actually helped push franchise revenues.

Xbox Game Pass is more than just a subscription--it's the foundation of the entire Xbox gaming business model.

At TweakTown, I've talked a lot about Game Pass and how it has transformed the video games industry. The introduction of Game Pass as the first multi-game content library subscription service (as the FTC refers to it) was a pivotal disruption point in gaming. The history of the world's largest entertainment industry is filled with disruption points.

First there were coin-op arcade machines (aka the original microtransactions), then the advent of the home console which brought the arcade to your living room.