Gaming News - Page 15

The first patient to have a Neuralink brain chip implanted into their head has been shown playing Mario Kart, which the patient describes as a "life-changing" experience.

The courageous first patient to undergo treatment by Neuralink is a 29-year-old man named Nolan Arbaugh, who explained via a video posted to the Neuralink X account that he was unfortunately paralyzed from the neck down after a tragic diving accident eight years ago. Now, Neuralink has posted a new hour-long video to its social channels, providing an update on Arbaugh's health following the implant and demonstrating the capabilities of the brain-computer interface (BCI).

During the company meeting, which featured Arbaugh as a guest, Neuralink showcased a quick gameplay video of Arbaugh playing Nintendo's Mario Kart. The video shows some split screen gameplay against another player, and what is impressive is that its hard to distinguish which player is Arbaugh, demonstrating the capabilities of Neuralink's BCI. Notably, Arbaugh was playing Bowser, and after watching the video its quickly seen the level of dexterity Arbaugh can have using the BCI.

Reports indicate that Grand Theft Auto VI could be delayed into 2026, and if that happens, Take-Two will have a sizable reduction in its revenue forecasts. But GTA V could help save the day (again).

How long can GTA V sustain the Grand Theft Auto franchise? If reports are accurate, the 11-year-old game could do some more heavy lifting. Sources have told Kotaku that GTA 6 might be pushed back as far as 2026 to give Rockstar Games more time to polish the game, which is believed to be one of the most important new releases for the modern games industry. The events of 2023 and 2024 (mass layoffs, budget cuts, lower-than-expected profit margins) have led to a mass culling of the industry and GTA 6 is seen as a savior of sorts that could uplift the market.

There's just one potential issue: Rockstar Games are perfectionists that require a lot of time to make their games. Red Dead Redemption 2 was delayed 3 times, and Rockstar has even reportedly rebooted GTA 6 in 2019. It's possible GTA 6 could miss its intended 2025 launch, a timeframe that could coincide with the rumored PlayStation 5 Pro console that's believed to be coming sometime in September - December 2024. If GTA 6 is delayed, and Sony does indeed release a PS5 Pro system, then Rockstar might have an opportunity to still boost its revenue while it works on GTA 6.

When it's finally released, Grand Theft Auto 6 will be one of the biggest games of all time, but according to the latest rumors, Rockstar is falling behind schedule and could delay it out of 2025 and into 2026.

Rockstar Games first revealed Grand Theft Auto 6 back in December 2023, but now Kotaku "has also learned that it's becoming more and more likely that the sequel might not land until late 2025". The site continues, saying that it's even possible GTA 6 could "even slip into 2026 as production reportedly falls behind". Sigh.

The developer pushed in a mandate for its staffers to return to the office instead of working from home, with Kotaku sources who wanted to remain anonymous to "avoid possible retaliation" said that the development of GTA 6 has started "falling behind". Kotaku says that their sources said that leadership at Rockstar is nervous, worrying that the game might miss its 2025 release and slip into 2026.

Overwatch 2 is poised to break a huge KPI milestone as soon as April, Blizzard says.

Overwatch 2 is an interesting case of a publisher actively experimenting with a new strategy, failing with said strategy, and actively pivoting while the game continues its live service delivery. Blizzard's new free-to-play endeavor has missed the mark with profitability, leading to cut budgets for the dev team, but that doesn't mean it's not popular.

According to OW2's devs, the franchise is set to achieve 100 million lifetime players by April. It's important to clarify that this milestone refers to the total sum of players of both Overwatch games and does not refer to just Overwatch 2.

Square Enix may have just teased the hotly anticipated FF9 Remake on stage at PAX East 2024.

Final Fantasy IX is expected to be the next game to get the full-on remake treatment from Square Enix, but official details have been slim. The existence of the FF9 Remake was accidentally leaked as part of NVIDIA's gigantic GeForce Now server hiccup from 2021. Things have certainly changed since then--the games industry has shrunken by over 16,000 workers--but it seems possible Square Enix kept FF9R's flame alive.

At PAX, Final Fantasy XIV director Yoshi-P outlined the MMORPG's new Dawntrail expansion, announcing two interesting in-game items that can be had with collector's edition pre-orders. Final Fantasy IX's main characters Zidane and Garnet will soon be included in the MMO as wind-up minions. Gamers quickly speculated that a FF9 Remake announcement could be imminent.

In a stunning show of self awareness and understanding of its core fans, Square Enix has decided to push Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail's expansion release date in order to make room for Elden Ring's thunderously anticipated Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.

Elden Ring took the world by storm in 2022, and FromSoft's fantasy RPG is poised to make a big mark on 2024 as well with the new Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. This is a big one, with FromSoft saying that it's their largest-ever expansion, complete with a premium $40 price tag. Everyone is looking forward to it, even Final Fantasy XIV game director Yoshi-P, and publishers have taken note from the game's success. Rather than compete, it might be best to just...get out of the way of Elden Ring, at least for a little bit.

That's exactly what Square Enix decided to do. At PAX East 2024, Yoshi-P broke the fourth wall and once again showed why he's such a beloved figure in gaming.

Final Fantasy XIV's new expansion Dawntrail is on the horizon, and Square Enix is prepping a huge $215 collector's edition...but there's some details you need to know before you buy.

At PAX 2024, Yoshi-P revealed tons of new details about the upcoming FFXIV Dawntrail expansion. Dawntrail is a big deal for Square Enix and previous expansions have also had CEs in the past, but this one comes with some restrictions.

Dawntrail's big box collector's edition comes packed with a bunch of extras including a handsome figurine of the new Viper class, a cloth map that would look incredible on your wall, a neat little pen case and journal set, and a gleaming box with breathtaking artwork from Yoshitaka Amano. There's just one potential problem: The CE doesn't come with a console version of the game--only PC or Mac.

Square Enix's Creative Business Unit III lays out what the next 10 years of Final Fantasy XIV will look like, and more intense and thrilling battles are a big part of the plans.

A bit ago, Square Enix confirmed that FFXIV would last at least another decade. The MMORPG has grown to 30 million registered users and is big consistent contributor to the publisher's earnings. It's definitely a cash crop, but the team has to keep innovating, iterating, and evolving the game over time to keep players interested.

At PAX East 2024, game director Yoshi-P outlined what gamers can expect from Final Fantasy XIV moving forward into the new Dawntrail expansion and beyond. A big goal is to keep combat fresh, exciting, and generally fun. Right now, depending on class and the role, combat is typically a rotation of spells and abilities that need to be carried out in specific sequences. According to Yoshi-P, this is a bit rote and he wants to spice things up.

Reports indicate that Microsoft is currently experimenting with new handheld gaming prototypes, presumably in an effort to help the hybrid market mature while raking in profits along the way.

Microsoft may be exploring a new handheld device capable of natively playing Xbox games. The news comes from a recent episode of the Xbox Two podcast where Windows Central's Jez Corden says that Microsoft has new gaming handheld tech in early prototype stages of development.

There's admittedly not a lot to go on. This topic is generally speculative in nature, and Valve's success with the Steam Deck is typically seen as evidence of a potential Xbox handheld. Corden cautions listeners by saying he's still investigating the matter and hasn't issued a report because info is still being gathered.

New compensation policies at Blizzard have cut bonuses for Overwatch 2 developers, sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

New reports have pulled the curtain back on the complex inner-workings of game development at the industry's former-largest independent publisher, Activision Blizzard. On top of layoffs, a new compensation plan at Blizzard has further stressed developers. The plan has changed the way developers receive their bonuses (if at all).

The new policy was instituted in 2023. Before the change, Blizzard would dole out bonuses to all employees based on the overall success of the publisher. If Blizzard's earnings were up, then everyone would get a bonus. The new policy only gives bonuses to the teams that are successful. For instance, in 2023, Diablo IV generated $666 million in just 5 days via game sales alone. The Diablo team's success doesn't affect other teams within the confines of the newer bonus scheme.