Gaming News - Page 1

Xbox president Sarah Bond says 'new options' are coming to Microsoft's game streaming offerings.

Microsoft's foray into cloud gaming is far from over. The company is still gung-ho on the nascent technology and hopes to use cloud to accelerate its multi-faceted games business. In a recent interview with Bloomberg Tech's Dina Bass, Xbox president Sarah Bond says that cloud gaming is seeing tremendous growth.

This growth is likely driven by a sharp uptick in Xbox game availability on services like GeForce Now. In an effort to assuage regulatory concerns, Microsoft signed a 10-year agreement to bring Xbox and Activision games to competing cloud services like GeForce Now and Boosteroid. In return, NVIDIA would get a lower Windows license fee. The partnership has born lots of fruit; in 2022, there were exactly 0 licenses for Xbox games that could be streamed on GFN, and as of today, there are 234 Xbox games that can be streamed over GFN.

Xbox's top brass are reportedly conflicted on whether or not new Call of Duty titles should launch on Game Pass.

Something as big as Call of Duty on Game Pass could skew things quite a bit, and in ways that Microsoft can't fully predict. The megaton shooter franchise is worth over $31 billion, but all of those earnings started with one thing: Premium game sales. Including Call of Duty on Xbox Game Pass will lead to fewer game sales--a replacive effect referred to as "cannibalization." Who's going to spend $70 on Call of Duty when they can play it for $17, or maybe even $25?

This is the exact reason that Activision Blizzard never included its games on Game Pass in the first place. Microsoft would have to pay quite a bit to make up for the potential impact on sales, and other publishers have reportedly referred to Game Pass as 'value destructive'. Consumers typically enter ABK's biggest games through a point of sale, especially Call of Duty.

Xbox's new mobile storefront will start on the web and "extend from there," Xbox president Sarah Bond says.

Xbox's Universal Store is starting to take shape. Microsoft plans to lay the early frameworks for its new unified digital commerce ecosystem with a so-called 'mobile store experience.' Xbox already has a game store on consoles and PC, but the mobile version won't be a dedicated shop.

Instead of a native app, Microsoft is launching its Xbox mobile store on the web. This way, Microsoft can completely circumvent paying the 30% commission fee on the Google Play and App Store. The Xbox mobile store experience is set to launch sometime in July--the same month that Microsoft will shut down the Xbox 360 store.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson said during the company's recent quarterly earnings call that the next Battlefied game will be developed by the "largest team in franchise history".

During the call, the EA CEO seemed to take on that Battlefield 2042 was a pile of junk, where he said "players have made it clear that they wanted an even deeper experience". I don't think players wanted a "deeper experience," they just wanted a great Battlefield game and to not see their franchise burning into the ground.

Wilson did say that EA is still committed to the live service models, after a survey earlier this year that pointed out that 70% of surveyed developers are worried about the sustainability of live service games. The new Battlefield game in development will have a "connected" side for single-player, but the EA CEO didn't walk us through how that would work.

Capcom's Dragon's Dogma 2 was released earlier this year. It took the publisher's impressive RE Engine (initially built for the Resident Evil franchise and games). It expanded its capabilities to fit the open-world RPG style of the Dragon's Dogma franchise. Hidden inside the engine was a full path-tracing mode that Capcom was playing around with, as seen here.

Now, you can enable full path tracing in the impressive Resident Evil 4 Remake via the same REFramework developer window while modding in DLSS 3.7 for improved upscaling and image quality. Although Resident Evil 4 is a game tailor-made for baked lighting (the time of day never changes), path tracing still makes a massive difference.

Certain night scenes and some objects look off, but several examples in the video presented by MxBenchmarkPC showcase the different path tracing, or complete ray tracing can bring to a game. Even when compared to the game's existing ray-tracing implementation.

Skyblivion is a fan remake of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in the Skyrim engine, an ambitious overhaul on track for a 2025 release. Like the Skywind project (the Morrowing remake using the Skyrim engine), the developers behind Skyblivion have presented an update on the game and its progress, with a closer look at what to expect.

Oblivion was one of the first RPGs from modern 3D gaming to launch with a truly massive open world to explore. However, many of the environments were procedurally generated, with dungeons and other points of interest, repeating layouts, and general designs. Skyblivion is going to great lengths to maintain Oblivion's massive size and ensure that each area, location, and dungeon feels unique.

The new Skyblivion update video opens with a detailed look at the game's 'Great Forest' region to the north. With distinct foliage, animals, and more, it looks fantastic and different in a way absent from Oblivion. Also being updated are the Ayleid Ruins, which now vary wildly in look, feel, design, and purpose.

NVIDIA's latest GeForce Game Ready Driver 552.44 - WHQL adds day-one support for two highly anticipated games, Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut and Homeworld 3, both of which will launch next week.

Ghost of Tsushima is the long-awaited PC port of the PS4 open-world feudal Japan cinematic action game from PlayStation Studios and developers Sucker Punch and Nixxes. Homeworld 3 is the return of an iconic sci-fi strategy game. Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut features DLSS 3, DLAA, and NVIDIA Reflex support, while Homeworld 3 supports DLSS Super Resolution upscaling or DLSS 2.

As a highly anticipated game, Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut also supports AMD's FSR 3 and Intel's XeSS upscaling for those without RTX-powered rigs. The PC version sports new features and improved visuals, with uncapped frame rate and ultrawide display support (up to a massive 49:9).

Two of Bethesda's key studios wanted to make new games in fan-favorite franchises before they were shut down.

Days ago, Xbox shut down three Bethesda Softworks studios: Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog. The decision was part of a new "reprioritization of resources" that would put Bethesda's "high-impact titles" front and center. Xbox closed down the studios and re-allocated their budgets and spending accounts for other teams and projects.

The news has caused a big rift among the Xbox faithful, but frustrations rose even more once today's news broke. Sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that Tango Gameworks was prepping an internal pitch for Hi-Fi Rush 2 before the studio was shut down. Hi-Fi Rush is one of the most acclaimed Xbox games in recent memory--fans love it and were eager for a sequel.

It hasn't been a great week for Xbox, with the studio dealing with widespread criticism and backlash for closing several Bethesda studios, including the talented Japanese team at Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within, Hi-Fi Rush) and veteran American studio Arkane Austin (Prey, Redfall).

This latest round of drastic cuts follows some major ones that happened after Xbox's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, so the general sentiment among the Xbox community right now is one of deep disappointment. To the point that a lot of that criticism is now being aimed squarely at those in charge.

Although it could be completely unrelated, the gaming community is viewing a Fallout 76 player dropping a nuke on Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer's (whose Gamertag is 'P3') in-game Camp as a small slice of digital justice.

ASUS has just revealed the new refreshed ROG Ally X gaming handheld, featuring the same AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU, but some upgraded innards. Check it out:

The truly next-generation ASUS ROG Ally 2 gaming handheld is still in development, with ASUS using the same Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU that made its original ROG Ally a hot-seller. We have the same APU, the same 7-inch 48-120Hz VRR screen, a newly black-colored style with huge battery life improvements, and more.

ASUS told The Verge that the refreshed ROG Ally X has "way more" than 30-40% more battery capacity, where we are told by ASUS SVP Shawn Yen that the ROG Ally X "won't disappoint" our "worst-case scenario" of 3 hours of battery life. That's not bad at all, ASUS.