Gaming News - Page 269

Final Fantasy XIV is likely getting a major new expansion throughout 2022 and early 2023.

Square Enix has big plans for Final Fantasy XIV throughout 2022. The MMORPG did extremely well last year--so well that it helped Square Enix make record earnings. FY21's record operating profits were driven by significant increase in MMO segment earnings thanks in part to Final Fantasy XIV's Endwalker expansion. The segment generated $511.176 million throughout the year, and comprised nearly a quarter of all net sales revenues (~22%).

This trend is expected to continue this year, too. This strongly indicates another major expansion is set to release sometime in FY23. "In particular, we are extremely pleased with the performance of Final Fantasy XIV. We are expecting a considerable earnings contribution again in FY2023/3," Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda said in a recent presentation.

A new Just Cause game is in development, Square Enix has confirmed, but it might be very different than other games in the franchise.

Just Cause 5, or possibly some sort of spin-off, is currently in development at Square Enix. Company president Yosuke Matsuda confirmed the news in a recent earnings report, saying "The Just Cause franchise will remain our IP, and we are at work developing a new title in the franchise."

The publisher also says it wants to ramp up more online-driven games in the future. It's possible the new Just Cause game could have live service elements or at least online multiplayer in some form. "We especially revisited our studio and title portfolios from the perspective of stepping up our offering of online titles that we develop for the North American and the European market. We want to focus on creating new titles that align with our strategy, including ones that leverage new IP."

A gamer has taken complaining to a new level as they have decided to seemingly leak classified Chinese military information on a forum in an attempt to get developers to change the game.

Kotaku has reported that OSINTtechnical has found a post on War Thunder's forums that shows classified military documents and an image of armament schematics that showcase a round that is fired by Chinese tanks. Notably, the post was removed from War Thunder's forums, but not before it was shared numerous times across multiple social media such as Twitter and Reddit.

Furthermore, Chinese-speaking gamers have translated the leaked schematics and provided a long list of dimensions, velocity, precision, capabilities, gun caliber, and more. The forums moderators informed Kotaku that community managers decided to immediately ban the user who posted the leak "as the information on this particular shell is still classified in China". Adding to that, the moderators said that posting any classified information on War Thunder's forums is prohibited, and the developers will "never use it in their work."

Diablo Immortal is indeed an intensely grindy, pay-to-win F2P game with intricately-designed layers of monetization. One YouTuber has uncovered the odds of endgame progress, and they're not good.

Diablo Immortal's endgame is gated off by a big paywall. The probability and chances of progression are so low for free-to-play users that it's almost entirely necessary to spend money unlocking Legendary Crests, which infuse Elder Rifts--special portals to enemy zones--with guaranteed chances of finding an endgame Legendary Gem.

So what makes Diablo Immortal's monetization so incredibly controversial? The short answer: An infinite RNG system based around astronomically bad odds. YouTuber Gregg2G did an excellent breakdown on Diablo Immortal's progression and microtransaction systems, complete with probabilities provided by whale-trackers.

SEGA is interested in making Saturn and Dreamcast mini consoles, but the costs are way too high.

SEGA just announced the Mega Drive Mini 2, a new mini console that packs in more Genesis-era and even some SEGA CD games. So what's next on the horizon? A SEGA Saturn mini, or maybe even a Dreamcast Classic re-release? Maybe...once chip production costs start to drop.

In a recent interview with Famitsu, SEGA producer Yosuke Okunari confirms that his team looked into recreating Dreamcast and Saturn micro-consoles but the projects fizzled out early on because they would be too expensive to manufacture because chips are so scarce.

What did Ocarina of Time look like way back in 1996? Not much different that it did on release, actually,

The Old Net.com opens up a temporal wormhole to a distant time far ago--a time when games were feature-complete at launch, and a time when 3D was brand new. It was November 1996, the Nintendo 64 had released months ago, and we just got to see a prototype in-development version of Ocarina of Time at Nintendo Space World in Shoshinkai, Japan. Ah, those were the days.

Using the Old Net website, I was able to travel down a little rabbit hole to the past and uncover some interesting Zelda 64 screenshots from 1996, which was two years before Ocarina of Time launched. It's a fascinating look at one of the best games ever made before it was technically one of the best games ever made, and honestly, the prototype doesn't look much different than the final game.

Love horror movies like The Thing and Even Horizon? Then you should keep The Callisto Protocol on your radar.

Dead Space developer Glen Schofield leads Striking Distance Studios, a team that's making one of the most horrifying video games in recent memory. It's called The Callisto Protocol, and it's a great singleplayer spiritual successor to the Dead Space trilogy that's dripping with a foreboding, haunted atmosphere set amid a madcap scramble for survival.

The game is decidedly cinematic in scope, plunging players into the "dead moon of Callisto" that brings to mind the wasteland of LV-426 from Alien. Tucked away on Jupiter's moon is a high-tech prison that turns upside down as brutal alien monstrosities annihilate everyone around them. Beset by impossible odds, players have to fight their way out tooth and nail in a grisly, terrifying spectacle that blends third-person action with seamless cutscene sequences for a genuine movie-like experience.

Fans asked for it, and Capcom is delivering: Resident Evil 4 is getting fully remade in the powerful RE Engine.

First Resident Evil 2, then RE3, and now the legendary fan-favorite Resident Evil 4 is getting completely rebuilt in Capcom's proprietary and advanced games engine. Resident Evil 4 is being built from the ground up for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, meaning it won't be held back by outdated hardware from 2013. That means ultra-fast loading times, higher-end graphics, effects, and lighting, and possibly even raytraced visuals.

Capcom is targeting a firm March 24, 2023 release date for the fan-favorite sequel which will help kick start game sales for its following fiscal year.

SEGA is releasing a new mini console that includes 50 games across Mega Drive and SEGA CD generations.

Back in the day, there was nothing like SEGA. The console just had its own mystique; it was so bombastic and in your face. Things got even more intense when SEGA started rolling out its expansion consoles. Instead of releasing separate systems, SEGA turned the Genesis/Mega Drive into a Frankenstein's monster abomination, attaching add-on modules like the SEGA CD and the 32X to the base unit. The result was a curious, bewildering, and captivating experiment in gaming technology.

Now that the console wars are behind them, SEGA can joke about the Mega Drive, SEGA CD, and 32X. The new Mega Drive Mini 2 is a humorous nod to a simpler time, an awesome nostalgic throwback that features a bunch of games from the Mega Drive and SEGA CD generation, including Sonic CD Shining Force CD, and arcade hit Virtua Racing. The console will eventually include 50 games but only 11 have been announced.

Guerrilla Games is developing a new update that adds new higher-end optimizations to its new next-gen Horizon game.

Horizon Forbidden West will soon run better than ever on PlayStation 5. The devs plan to release a new patch for Horizon Forbidden West that adds Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support for the game on PS5, which will allow more consistent and smooth frame rates on compatible TVs and monitors. VRR greatly improves sync rates between the console's output and a display's refresh rate. There's also a mysterious 40FPS mode coming soon.

"We've revamped Temporal Anti-Aliasing to improve the visual fidelity of our Performance mode on PS5 and rendering on PS4 Pro. We're already working on an upcoming patch which will include VRR support and a 40FPS Mode, so stay tuned for more," Guerrilla Games wrote on the PlayStation Blog.