Gaming News - Page 1

Microsoft seems pretty hungry after its Activision acquisition, with a fresh (and very hot, prepare your salt) rumor that the Windows and Xbox giant is preparing a $16 billion offer to buy Valve. Yes, that Valve, from Gabe Newell.

Dior is a gaming-focused content creator in the Counter-Strike gaming community, posting on X that Microsoft is reportedly preparing a $16 billion offer to buy Valve Corporation, which would include the absolutely gigantic Steam store... by far, the most popular PC gaming platform on the market, and stars in the eyes ($$$) of Microsoft.

Yesterday, Microsoft unveiled a new range of AI-powered Copilot+ PCs, which will arrive soon. These PCs are powered by Arm-based Snapdragon X chips running Windows 11 with a suite of new AI features and optimizations. In addition to Microsoft's latest Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, Copilot+ PCs are arriving from various partners, including ASUS, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, and more.

They all run on Snapdragon X chips with a Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, which provides 45 TOPS of AI performance to meet the Copilot+ PC requirement. This is all fine for running AI tools locally, but what about gaming performance? Well, Microsoft held a Windows on Arm gaming demonstration at the Build 2024 event to showcase the power of the Qualcomm Adreno GPU found in the Snapdragon X Elite chipset.

According to Windows Central, which was present during the presentation, Baldur's Gate 3 can run on a Surface Pro at around 30 FPS at 1080p. This is comparable performance to high-end PC gaming handhelds, which is encouraging for the future of Arm gaming on Windows devices.

Ninja Theory and Xbox Game Studios just released the sequel to the critically acclaimed Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, with Senua's Saga: Hellblade II now available on PC and Xbox consoles.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II was a highly anticipated release from Ninja Theory, as the game was in development for nearly five years and any trailer or screenshots showcasing the title left fans in awe at the phenomenal graphics - particularly the motion capture. But, with intense graphics there is a cost to performance, or framerate, and that is now being reported by players on the Xbox Series X|S.

According to an analysis by ElAnalistaDeBits, Hellblade II runs at a dynamic 2560x1070p with an average res of around 2304x963p on Xbox Series X and a dynamic 1920x803p with an average of 1472x615p on Xbox Series S. If you are wondering why the resolutions aren't familiar it's because Ninja Theory chose to run the game in a cinematic aspect ratio of 2.39:1, which means black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.

Elden Ring players will be glad to know that some new details have been revealed about the villain they will be facing in the upcoming DLC expansion titled "Shadow of the Erdtree".

The long-awaited expansion of the critically acclaimed FromSoftware title Elden Ring has just received a new story trailer that reveals some new details about the villain, Messmer the Impaler. Reports indicate the new villain is a powerful demigod that is linked to the characters from the original Elden Ring story. As for the story trailer, there are hints at what sent the demigod Miquella to the new land that she sacrificed himself for.

Additionally, the trailer ends with followers of Miquella joining forces and requesting new warriors fight for their cause to be rid of Messmer and his burning legions. Notably, the new story trailer may appear confusing to the casual Elden Ring player who didn't really pay much attention to the lore of the game and was just there for the extremely tight and rewarding gameplay, but for self-proclaimed Elden Ring scholars, the new story trailer is certainly a rich piece of information to obtain just a few months before the DLC releases.

Grand Theft Auto V has now sold-in more than 200 million copies worldwide, Take-Two Interactive has announced.

Over a decade later, GTA V is still selling incredibly well on all platforms. The game has now shipped 200 million copies worldwide as of March 2024, up 5 million units since the previous quarter. This is quite the eponymous trend for GTA V: The game has shipped 5 million copies in 11 of the last 16 quarters.

Total Grand Theft Auto franchise sales are now at 425 million, and GTA V makes up nearly half of those sales, or about 47%.

Microsoft isn't the only one working on a mobile games platform--Sony is also developing its own PlayStation mobile experience.

Earlier this month, Xbox president Sarah Bond confirmed Microsoft's mobile games store would launch in July. But Xbox isn't the only one interested in leveraging the $90 billion market; Sony also has big dreams of releasing its own free-to-play mobile titles.

There's just one problem: Outside of Fate/Grand Order, Sony doesn't actually have any mobile games. That's about to change, though, as Sony ramps up investments in the space, including acquisitions of studios like Firesprite and Valkyrie. Now a new Sony job listing for a mobile platform architect gives clues on what's next for Sony's mobile ambitions.

Microsoft has grand ambitions to capture some of the $90 billion mobile games market with an Xbox mobile store, but the digital shop won't actually sell games when it launches.

Microsoft plans to launch an Xbox mobile store experience in July, but what will it look like? According to Game File's Stephen Totilo, the store will only sell microtransactions at launch. The store has been a long time coming but Microsoft didn't take the plunge until now due not having enough mobile titles to justify an entire competing store.

Emboldened by the Activision Blizzard King acquisition, which armed Microsoft with three heavy-hitting mobile powerhouses (Candy Crush, Call of Duty Mobile, and Diablo Immortal), and European Union's new Digital Markets Act, the company has now decided to flip the switch and greenlight its mobile plans.

Microsoft could raise the price of Xbox Game Pass once again in an effort to combat rising costs of games development.

Game Pass subscribers might be in for another price increase as Xbox chases more growth. Sources tell The Verge's Tom Warren that Microsoft is mulling over a subscription price hike for Game Pass.

This price hike is likely being timed in conjunction with the arrival of Call of Duty on Game Pass--the added value from the series could give Microsoft a reason to raise subscription prices again.

IGN Entertainment has purchased Gamer Network, and it now owns UK sites like Eurogamer/Digital Foundry, GamesIndustry.biz, VG247, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

After today's deal, IGN now owns a considerable portion of the video games media sector. The Ziff Davis-owned media company has acquired Gamer Network for an undisclosed sum.

Gamer Network was founded in 1999, and over its multi-decade run has grown to operate a ring of six popular UK-based websites including Eurogamer, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, VG247, Digital Foundry, Dicebreaker, and GamesIndustry.biz, which has become an important resource for video game developers to connect and find work.

Sony has taken to the official PlayStation YouTube channel to share a new trailer for V Rising, revealing the release date for the popular title on PS5.

V Rising, developed and published by Stunloock Studios, has been available on PC for quite some time, gaining quite a lot of attention for its new take on the survival genre with a meticulously thought-out combat system that is reminiscent of Diablo. V Rising has earned itself a "Very Positive" review score on Steam, with some players saying the game is like if ARK: Survival Evolved and Diablo had a baby, and that baby was into Anne Rice novels, the American gothic fiction author best known for The Vampire Chronicles.

Along with the announcement the game is coming to the PS5 on June 11, developer Stunlock Studios announced three purchasable editions for PlayStation. The Standard Edition includes just the base game, while the Legacy of Castlevania Edition includes the base game, Legacy of Castlevania Premium Pack and 5 days early access. Lastly, the V Rising Completed Edition includes the following.