Gaming News - Page 331

Sony plans to buy Destiny and Halo creator Bungie for $3.6 billion, however the studio will remain independently run and continue self-publishing its own games.

Sony's acquisition of Bungie won't instantly lock down everything to PlayStation. This is a lot like a Tencent buyout; Instead of coming in and laying down on rules and mandates, Sony will let Bungie operate, create, and distribute its games independently without managerial oversight.

The clarification is especially important since Bungie received a huge $100 million investment from NetEase to fund its "bold new vision." Bungie has also filed trademarks for something called Matter, and is currently working on another Destiny project as well as a new IP.

Sony is buying Bungie, the creators of Destiny and Halo.

Sony is striking back with a megaton purchase of its own. Sony is buying Bungie, the original developers of Halo and the Destiny franchise for $3.6 billion.

Microsoft recently purchased Activision-Blizzard for $68.7 billion and ZeniMax in 2020 for $7.5 billion. In 2018, Bungie re-purchased the Destiny franchise from Activision-Blizzard and received a massive $100 million investment from Chinese juggernaut NetEase to fund its "bold new vision."

First Sony's PlayStation exclusives came to PC, then games released on Xbox. Now Sony will release its first PlayStation Studios game on Nintendo Switch.

Today the MLB announced that MLB The Show 22 will release on April 15, 2022 on PlayStation, Xbox, and for the first time ever, Nintendo Switch. This is a great business move that will leverage the Switch's mighty 92.87 million install base and also marks a historic occasion as the first-ever PlayStation Studios game to release on the Switch (MLB The Show games are developed by Sony's San Diego Studio, a wholly-owned subsidiary).

MBL The Show 22 will have full cross-platform play with PlayStation and Xbox gamers, alongside cross-progression.

After significant push back from fans, voice actor Troy Baker will no longer get into NFTs.

Troy Baker, who has voiced countless characters from Joel Miller in The Last of Us and The Joker in the Batman Arkham games, is abandoning is plans to support voice-based NFTs.

"Thank you all for your feedback and patience. After careful consideration, I've decided to not continue the partnership with VoiceVerseNFT. Intentions aside, I've heard you and apologize for accusing anyone of "hating" just by simply disagreeing with me," Baker said on Twitter.

FF7 Remake part 2 could be announced sometime in 2022 to coincide with the game's big 25th anniversary.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is an episodic game that could span console generations. It's been nearly two years since the first game was released, so when does FF7R chapter 2 launch? No one knows yet, but we could get an announcement this year.

In a recent anniversary stream, game producer Yoshinori Kitase said: "...As for the Final Fantasy VII Remake news you've been waiting on, I think I'll be able to share more this year, maybe."

Elden Ring won't be so mercilessly difficult this time and offer players more flexibility to tackle obstacles like bosses, environments, and exploration in different ways.

Hidetaka Miyazaki has some great news for Elden Ring players: The game's non-linear open world gives more freedom in when to fight or avoid bosses. That means players won't have to "bang their head against a wall over and over," as Miyazaki puts it. You can run off and go level up somewhere else, explore another region, or practice against smaller enemies.

In this way, Elden Ring should technically be less difficult that linear games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne.

Square Enix teases even more Final Fantasy 7 projects as the landmark RPG turns 25 years old.

Final Fantasy 7 is so popular that Square Enix is treating as a mini-series. Mainline games will still continue--like Final Fantasy XVI--but the FF7 Series is getting its own galaxy of products too. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is just the beginning, and both Yoshinori Kitase (producer) and Tetsuya Nomura (creative director) tease more FF7 games.

"FF7 has re-emerged as the latest game in the series once again, with titles like Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 7 The First Soldier, and you can look forward to even more exciting new developments in the future," producer Yoshinori Kitase said in a recent post.

New box art for Cyberpunk 2077 has reportedly been spotted on the PlayStation Store's backend database, hinting at an incoming PS5 version.

Back in October, CD Projekt announced Cyberpunk 2077's next-gen versions would be delayed to Q1 2022. This period is from January thru March 2022 so that means Cyberpunk 2077 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S should launch sometime in February or March.

Now it looks like the next-gen version is right on track. New icon artwork for Cyberpunk 2077 has been unearthed by dataminers who comb the PlayStation servers for info on upcoming game releases. CD Projekt has not yet uploaded metadata like file size for the PS5 build--once that happens it indicates that progress has been made and some time of build has been uploaded.

Support studio Certain Affinity is reportedly working on a brand new all-original gametype for Halo Infinite that will appeal to recreational players.

Halo Infinite Firefight or some variant of PvPvE game mode could be coming to the budding service game. Sources tell Windows Central's Jez Corden that Certain Affinity is making a new Halo Infinite mode aimed at casual gamers.

The gametype is big enough to have its own codename (Project Tatanka) and may serve as the middle ground between the easy Bot Bootcamp playlist and the more competitive playlists. The mode is meant to onboard new players who may not be familiar with Halo's gameplay and would rather enjoy a more low-stress experience, possibly something like the unranked, non-competitive camaraderie that formed from Halo 3's customs matches years ago.

A new Halo Infinite BTB fix has been playtested and is waiting to be greenlit by Xbox's QA teams.

After 3 months of malfunctioning matchmaking and one failed update, Halo Infinite's Big Team Battle is still having issues. 343i is on the case and says a new patch is currently in certification...but it won't be ready until February 3 at the earliest. For now BTB will still remain broken, but the devs will remove challenges from BTB starting February 1.

"Using the telemetry we received from the hotfix on January 19, we were able to make a new build with an update that we believe should address the core issue impacting the BTB playlist. The studio ran a successful playtest today and plans to send it off for certification on Monday," Halo community manager John Junyszek said in a forum post.