Gaming News - Page 364

343 Industries has put the finishing touches on Halo Infinite's campaign to meet its December 8 release date.

Halo Infinite has officially gone gold and is now 100% finished and ready to ship to retailers. This is a huge milestone for 343i; after six long years of game development and architecting a brand new Slipspace games engine, Infinite is now ready to be deployed on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

343i has done a fantastic job turning Infinite around. The 2020 campaign reveal showed off lackluster graphics and washed-out effects. All of that has changed and Infinite looks very good in both campaign and multiplayer.

Analysts are starting to downgrade Activision-Blizzard stock due to abuse allegations and ongoing controversy.

Activision-Blizzard is being hit on all sides right now. The company is accused of fostering a frat boy culture where sexual harassment, discrimination, and abuse runs rampant. Every day there's new reports breaking out that adds new volatility to share value. ATVI stock has been crashing for weeks now. At the time of writing Activision stock is at $62.38, the lowest point in the last year.

Analysts are taking note and adjusting their forecasts. J.P. Morgan financial analyst Alexia Quadrani has downgraded Activision stock from overweight to neutral, which essentially means Activision-Blizzard stock ivalue is now seen as in line with expected returns on the market.

Xbox gaming boss Phil Spencer is wary and skeptical of NFTs, sees new digital craze as experimental and potentially exploitative.

Gaming's biggets third-party publishers like Ubisoft, EA, Take-Two, SEGA, and Square Enix are interested in NFTs. None of that will matter if platform-holders don't agree. If Valve or Microsoft block NFTs, then publishers simply won't have a place to distribute or sell their NFT-monetized games. (Valve has already banned all NFT games from Steam).

The reality is NFTs are seen as a get rich quick scheme and regulations and rules haven't been established. No one really knows how to implement NFTs into their games yet. Until that part is figured out, platform-holders like Xbox will scrutinize NFTs; Microsoft's Phil Spencer isn't convinced yet.

4 years later, Assassin's Creed Origins is still a looker. But 8K gaming pushes the game to an entirely new level.

AC Origins is one of the best-looking games in the franchise. The Ptolemaic Egyptian world is replete with brilliant colors and enchanting ancient pyramids, towering plinths and monoliths, and tons of Hellenistic statues. It's one of the best worlds Ubisoft has ever created and it looks absolutely insane in 8K.

YouTuber Digital Dreams is known for pushing games well past their limits on PC and that's exactly what's happened to AC Origins. A new video reveals what future-generation Assassin's Creed games could look like with 8K resolution and RT On. The spellbinding footage was captured on a PC outfitted with GeForce RTX 3090 pumping out crazy 8K resolution at the ultra graphics preset.

SEGA wants to use Microsoft's Azure servers to power its new games-as-a-service initiative. SEGA confirms these games won't be Xbox exclusives.

A bit ago, SEGA confirmed it was negotiating a deal with Microsoft to use Azure to host, deploy, and even develop its most ambitious games. SEGA wants to create a whole new type of game called Super Games, which are huge sprawling live service titles similar to Phantasy Star Online. It wants to have multiple Super Games on the market by 2030; SEGA defines Super Games as large online titles that serve worldwide markets and make $800 million - $1 billion in lifetime revenue.

SEGA needs servers to make this happen. So naturally they teamed up with Microsoft. After all, Phantasy Star Online 2 is already powered by Azure and SEGA wants its future games to also use the potent cloud network. SEGA will spend up to $880 million on the development of its new Super Games.

Rockstar Games has officially apologized for the GTA Definitive Edition remasters and promises that a new update will fix many of the core issues. Definitive Edition owners on PC will also get free copies of the original games.

After 8 days of public ridicule, Rockstar Games has responded to the GTA remaster controversy. The developer admits the Definitive Edition was a faulty product and says they're working on multiple patches for the game to fix "technical issues". No specifics have been confirmed just yet...but let's hope things like atmospheric fog and rain are addressed, as well as the embarrassing character models and glitches.

"The updated versions of these classic games did not launch in a state that meets our own standards of quality, or the standards our fans have come to expect," Rockstar said.

Following two public walk out protests, Activision-Blizzard employees are now signing a petition asking for CEO Bobby Kotick's removal from the company.

Activision's dirty laundry has been laid bare for everyone to see. Multiple lawsuits, insider reports, and public statements paint a sordid picture of Activision-Blizzard's billion-dollar empire, from harassment and pay discrimination to serious sexual abuse and rape claims. Now workers are sending a message to corporate.

Employees have formed the A Better ABK movement in an effort to rally workers together and call for change. A new petition has also been started that takes aim directly at Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who, according to a Wall Street Journal expose, knew of specific abuse allegations and hid them from the board. 1,337 employees have signed their names publicly to the petition asking the company's board of directors to oust Kotick from a leadership position.

The latest New Horizons update has totally ignited Outriders' stagnant playerbase with a huge 400%+ increase in players on Steam.

Gamers have moved on from Outriders...until now. The shooter-RPG mashup is back in the spotlight in a big way. The game's New Horizon update sees tons of players returning to try out the new content, and for good reason: the update is literally fulfilling a big wish list made by the community.

Players have responded in a big way. Outriders' active players have skyrocketed after New Horizon's release, jumping 464% one day after the update's launch. Outriders' playerbase on Steam went from 1,293 peak daily players to 6,617 daily players. That's a pretty huge jump and while it remains to be seen whether or not People Can Fly can retain these players...but for now the community is rallying behind the update.

PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has put Activision in the hot seat and is directly asking Activision how they plan to change.

Billion-dollar games titan Activision-Blizzard is getting raked over the coals right now due to ongoing discrimination, harassment, and sexual abuse controversies. The company is under multiple investigations including securities fraud and a damning lawsuit from the Department of Fair Employment and Housing that alleges instances of rape, abuse, coercion, and heavy drinking within the publisher. A new report from the Wall Street Journal uncovers that CEO Bobby Kotick knew about multiple rape allegations and hid them from the board of directors.

The media (including TweakTown) have been covering this story for months, but now Activision's partners are starting to comment. Sony's Jim Ryan has sent internal emails (via Bloomberg) saying that he is "disheartened and frankly stunned" to hear about the publisher's conduct.

Embracer Group's 80 studios are going to be very busy over the next 5 years with a huge slate of upcoming AAA releases.

Embracer Group (formerly THQ Nordic) just posted up its Q2'21 results, confirming strong sales driven by digital earnings and a look at the company's ambitious release pipeline.

The company plans to release 25 AAA games by March 2026, which is more than most companies release in 10 years. This makes sense considering Embracer has an immense arsenal of 80 studios with a total of 9,000 employees.