Gaming News - Page 295

A huge 'Warzone-scale' battle royale type of mode is coming to Halo Infinite in an effort to revitalize the playerbase.

Halo Infinite's often-rumored battle royale mode could arrive sometime in season 3 alongside Forge, sources have told Windows Central's Jez Corden.

Halo 2 multiplayer developer Certain Affinity is making the mode, a massive undertaking that's been in development for two years with a scale that may rival Call of Duty Warzone--in fact, it's so big that it's "almost like another game."

Microsoft is reportedly working on its own ad tech platform that would serve up advertisements in free-to-play Xbox games.

Reports from Business Insider say that Microsoft wants to facilitate a platform to bring in-game ads to F2P Xbox games. Sources say Microsoft is currently in talks with ad tech specialists to build a new advertisement platform that will inject ads into specific games, namely free-to-play titles that may include the likes of Fortnite, Warzone, and Rocket League.

Although ad tech is one of the most lucrative aspects of mobile gaming, Microsoft's goal may be to boost visibility and engagement rather than make money. Sources say that Microsoft may not take a cut of the revenues generated from ads. Instead, game developers/publishers and advertisement agencies would share the proceeds.

Activision-Blizzard's latest SEC filing gives clues on what's on the horizon for the publisher, including possible release timings for its biggest games.

Blizzard's latest revenue earnings forecast suggests something big is coming in 2023. The company has forecasted a huge 90% year-over-year revenues spike that sees earnings jumping from $2 billion in 2022 to a whopping $3.75 billion in 2023.

Blizzard segment revenues have a forecasted 22% CAGR rate over the four-year period, and this particular rise represents the largest jump in year-over-year revenues across all of the company's segments.

Cyberpunk 2077's controversy has significantly impacted sales to the point where other digital-only games are beating CD Projekt's latest release.

Today Blizzard confirmed that Diablo II Resurrected has sold more than 5 million copies across PC and consoles. This is a stellar debut for a AAA project, especially a remaster/re-release. The game did so well that it actually beat Cyberpunk 2077, which moved about 4.3 million sales through 2021-2022. It's worth noting that CP2077 was discounted to just $5 multiple times during this period, and D2R was a digital-only release that had no physical in-store launch.

While the figure is certainly triumphant for Blizzard and Vicarious Visions, it's also a stark reminder of how devastating controversy can be for game sales. Cyberpunk 2077 launched to extreme hype that quickly switched to controversy due to terrible performance on PS4 and Xbox One. Sony actually pulled Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store for six months and Microsoft branded the game with a warning message on the Xbox store.

Cyberpunk 2077's first expansion won't release this year, CD Projekt RED has confirmed.

Cyberpunk 2077 is far by CD Projekt RED's fastest-selling game of all time. The sci-fi FPS launched into extreme hype and subsequent controversy with a massive 13.7 million copies sold within a month's time, and helped CD Projekt make more money than it ever has before. The trade-off was that CD Projekt essentially sold its reputation for upfront cash: The game performed so badly on PS4 and Xbox One that CDPR was vilified for months on end, with Sony even removing Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store for 6 months.

Ever since then, CDPR has been on a redemption arc and trying to make a big comeback. The recent Cyberpunk 2077 release on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S helped things along but the absence of substantial content has contributed to a dramatic drops in game sales.

Years after controversy, Sean Murray is once again hyping up his next game...which is said to be so ambitious it might be impossible.

Sean Murray has been talking up his new project for a while now. The game, which isn't No Man's Sky 2, has yet to be announced, but we first reported on it back in 2019.

Back then Murray used similar vernacular to describe the game, too: "We've got something else going on at the studio. It's exciting, and it's unfortunately going to be ambitious," said at the time.

BioWare's next Mass Effect game has entered early phases of development, studio GM Gary McKay has announced.

In a new blog update, BioWare assures fans that it's working hard on two new projects: Dragon Age 4, which is set to launch sometime in 2024 according to reports, and a new Mass Effect game that's coming way later down the line. Although in initial stages, development on Mass Effect 5 is progressing with a smaller team led by Mike Gamble.

According to the update, Mass Effect 5, which will continue the original trilogy storyline, has moved from prototyping stages to early stages of development.

CD Projekt RED confirms it has abandoned adding further multiplayer support into Cyberpunk 2077's RED Engine, and will use Unreal Engine 5 for multiplayer instead.

In a recent earnings report, CDPR says it is moving to Unreal Engine 5 for its multiplayer needs. This update may signal that Cyberpunk 2077's separate online multiplayer game has either been cancelled or is switching to UE5, which may be a painful process for developers. It could also indicate that the RED Engine has been fully optimized for CP2077's multiplayer project...which may be unlikely given the iterative nature of games development.

"Following the decision to change the underlying game engine and conclusion of a licensing and partnership agreement with Epic Games International, the Company gained access to multiplayer solutions available in Unreal Engine 4 and 5, as a result of which it abandoned further R&D work on adding multiplayer elements to REDEngine."

The Witcher 3 is a sales revenue monster and has delivered its second-best sales throughout 2021.

Today CD Projekt announced its 2021 earnings and updated a bunch of sales figures for its franchises. Cyberpunk 2077 is currently at 18 million+ and The Witcher series has sold over 65 million units to date since first launching 15 years ago.

The Witcher 3 is the overwhelming best-seller and remains one of CD Projekt's most important games of all time. The Witcher 3 has sold 40 million+ copies, accounting for over 61% of total franchise sales. The company says 2021 was the second-best year for The Witcher 3 sales since the game's launch in 2015, where it helped CDPR earn $119.5 million.

Cyberpunk 2077's lifetime sales are now at 18 million+, confirming a significant decline in game sales throughout 2021.

CD Projekt RED recently announced new Cyberpunk 2077 sales figures that fall in line with downward adjustments from analysts. The numbers show CP2077 is currently at 18 million+ sales, which means the game sold at least 4.3 million units throughout 2021. That's a 70% drop from the game's incredible 13.7 million launch sales made in December 2020.

The decline was triggered by the game's heated controversy that eventually led to CP2077 being removed from the PlayStation Store for six months due to disastrous performance on the base PlayStation 4. This significantly reduced overall sales, however CDPR has recognized most of its game unit sales from PC.