Gaming News - Page 289

Starfield's game engine is a "piece of crap," a former Bethesda Game Studios developer has said.

Starfield's new revamped Creation Engine 2 may be having some issues, particularly with flight mechanics. A former Bethesda Game Studios developer actually says the "engine is a piece of crap," saying that space flight isn't all that fun.

The developer has been sharing Starfiled info on forum site ResetERA since 2021. The user has been authenticated by ResetERA's site admins, and Jason Schreier also confirmed the user was legitimate.

Sony's new game demo policy won't interrupt developer's workloads, and will instead be automated by the PlayStation Store group.

Sony has announced a new mandate that all games on the PlayStation Store that cost more than $34 in wholesale pricing need to have a 2-hour game demo. This is a pretty tall order as there are thousands of games on Sony's storefront.

There's been lost of concern that this would overload game devs with extra work (unless, of course, they asked Sony to lower MSRP of their games on the store to get under the $34 threshold). Now sources tell Kotaku's Ethan Gach that game devs won't actually make the demos. Sony's PlayStation Store engineers will do the heavy lifting and create the 2-hour demos themselves.

Blizzard's segment revenues have dropped to an all-time 8-year low as the developer gears up big projects like Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2.

Activision-Blizzard's latest quarterly earnings show declines in key segments including Blizzard, who has reported the lowest revenues in nearly a decade.

According to data provided by the publisher and compiled by us, Blizzard Entertainment made $274 million revenues throughout Q1 2022, a 43% decline from last year.

Microsoft confirms its Xbox division is currently investigating new fledgling tech like NFTs and cryptocurrency.

After microtransactions and live services, NFTs are gaming's latest craze. In fact, it's possible NFTs could radically change the video games business. Major publishers like Square Enix and SEGA are interested in NFTs, whereas Ubisoft and Konami have already released NFTs (to varying success).

Now Microsoft could be experimenting with NFTs and crypto at its Xbox R&D teams. An Xbox representative recently told Bloomberg that the division is "aware and looking into NFTs, cryptocurrency and other emerging technologies, but don't yet have anything to share."

Sony has clarified on exactly how subscription upgrades will work with the new PlayStation Plus 3-tier plans.

Sony plans to merge PS Plus and PS Now on June 13. So what if you're already subscribed to both services? Sony confirms that these users will get access to the higher-end PlayStation Plus Premium tier.

Existing subscribers of both PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now will migrate to PS Plus Premium at no cost, unlocking access to 740 games across six console generations including PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, PS5 and PlayStation Portable.

Ubisoft's new video game releases have been delayed and pushed back farther than expected, sources have told Kotaku.

Ubisoft is a big publisher with even bigger value, but the company's long-term vision is potentially in jeopardy. Ubisoft's slate of upcoming premium games has reportedly been set back, with new entries in the Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Ghost Recon franchises being farther away than Ubisoft would've hoped.

The absence of big game releases makes Ubisoft decidedly vulnerable. The company's live services aren't necessarily able to sustain long-term revenue growth; unlike Blizzard, who can make hundreds of millions every year from monetization, Ubisoft needs to release full games every so often to 1) make revenues from the sales and 2) establish new entry points for microtransactions and live services.

Activision promises that Call of Duty Modern Warfare II will be a spectacle unlike any other in the history of the franchise.

Call of Duty's last annual release is going out with a bang. Activision recently hyped up this year's Call of Duty and confirmed it was a sequel to 2019's Modern Warfare. Apparently Infinity Ward has been working on true next-gen features, optimizations, and content to help push the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S to new levels of immersion.

"This year's Call of Duty is a sequel to 2019's Modern Warfare, the most successful Call of Duty title to date, and will be the most advanced experience in franchise history," Activision said in its recent Q1 earnings report.

Microsoft expects gaming to drop in Q4 and break Xbox's quarterly growth streak.

Xbox is currently dominating the market. Microsoft took over market share in key territories through January - March 2022. Console revenues are up 14% due to a supply surge, and Xbox Series X/S were the best-selling consoles in March 2022. Xbox just delivered another record-breaking quarter with $3.74 billion in Q3, which was the highest Q3 period in Xbox gaming history. Xbox has actually made record revenues for three straight consecutive quarters in a row.

Q4 2022 is a different story. Microsoft expects Xbox gaming revenues to drop as much as 9% through the quarter from April - June 2022, breaking the three-month growth streak.

Xbox dominated gaming's most important regions from January - March.

Xbox was the market leader in key territories like the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe through its Q3 period (Jan - Mar 2022), Microsoft has announced. The update aligns with the NPD Group's March 2022 report that Xbox Series X/S consoles were the top-selling systems in the U.S.

"We have taken share quarterly for two quarters in a row, and we are the quarterly market leader in western Europe, UK, US, and Canada," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during a Q3 call.

SEGA plans to delist all existing digital versions of classic Sonic games ahead of its new Sonic Origins remaster collection.

Sonic Origins will soon be the only way to buy old-school Sonic games on modern hardware. According to Games Press, SEGA is removing existing standalone digital versions of Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic CD from all platforms. Anyone who currently owns these games will still be able to download and play the games, but new users won't be able to buy them.

The games will still be accessible on SEGA Ages and any games released on the Nintendo Switch Online+ Expansion Pak will still be playable.