Gaming News - Page 1

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.

Experts at Digital Foundry discussed the possibility of the next-generation Nintendo console being able to output a 4K resolution at 60FPS.

The tech experts over at Digital Foundry, the gold-standard for video game hardware/software analysis, recently discussed the Nintendo Switch successor being able to output games at a 4K, 60FPS using NVIDA DLSS. According to the team, the purported Switch 2 may be able to deliver a 4K resolution at 30FPS, but 60FPS will more than likely be off the table due to how expensive it is for the console's GPU to upscale the content.

Digital Foundry referenced a test they conducted with a T239 chip wherein their goal was to replicate the rumored hardware inside the Switch 2, specifically the test where they upscaled Death Stranding from 720p to 4K with DLSS Ultra Performance. The team found the upscaling added 18.3 milliseconds to frame time over native resolution, meaning 60FPS wasn't possible. However, upscaling to 1440p from 720p only added 7.7 milliseconds.

Take-Two Interactive, the publisher behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise, is concentrating on over-delivering with the next installment in the series, Grand Theft Auto VI.

The CEO of the publisher, Strauss Zelnick, was asked during a recent earnings call about pricing for the publisher's catalog of games, particularly the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Zelnick responded by saying Take-Two aims at delivering "great value at any given time" and that its rubric for any new game it plans on releasing will provide more value to a gamer than the price tag on a game.

Zelnick said when Take-Two lands on a price for a new game, it makes sure it's "good news" for gamers, and the game's "experience vastly over-delivers". All of this alludes to the mystery surrounding the price tag for Grand Theft Auto VI, and unfortunately, Zelnick dodged direct questions regarding the highly anticipated title's price tag. However, we do know Take-Two is more than comfortable charging $70 for a new game, with Zelnick saying last year that players seem to be happy paying $70 for games.

It's one of the most highly anticipated video game releases of all time, with Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto VI set to launch sometime in Fall 2025 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S - covering September, October, and November. Is there a chance the game's release will push beyond this window? Sure, nothing is set in stone this far out for a game - but Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says the publisher is 'highly confident' GTA 6 will arrive on time.

In a new interview with CNBC, Zelnick said, "There is slippage in the industry, and we're not immune from that. However, we narrowed the timing because we are highly confident in that timing." Take-Two only recently put a release window on Grand Theft Auto 6, so it sounds like development is progressing as planned.

Still, he adds that instead of bugs (which it can plan for), Rockstar is seeking 'perfection' in GTA 6. And with that, "there are extraordinary expectations, [so] it's not really about bugs."

With the release and success of Baldur's Gate 3, developer Larian Studios is now one of the world's most esteemed RPG creators. Although we won't be getting an expansion, and Larian is officially moving on from the Baldur's Gate franchise (Hasbro is looking to pick up the pieces), the studio is hard at work on "two very ambitious RPGs."

With that, Larian Studios is expanding, with Larian Studios Warsaw opening in Poland to help work on its upcoming games. Larian calls Warsaw "one of the greatest RPG development hubs in the world," and it's no secret why - the city is home to CD Projekt Red, who created The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077.

Interestingly, this isn't the only news surrounding a high-profile developer opening a Polish-based studio. Activision announced that its new Elsewhere Entertainment studio in the region is being set up to create a new "narrative-based, genre-defining AAA franchise."

Microsoft will integrate Copilot AI into Xbox and PC games like Minecraft. The company showcased how it will work with the latter at its big Surface and AI event earlier today, and the results are pretty wild. In a demonstration, Microsoft showed how Copilot can act as a digital assistant that you can verbally interact with to provide in-game information, help, and tips.

In Minecraft, it could be as simple as asking for a crafting recipe. Copilot can then step you through the process and even assess your inventory to provide answers on what you might need and where to find it. The whole presentation included a scenario where Copilot acted as an interactive guide for a player looking to craft a sword. It's filled with rich, naturalistic conversational delivery and is impressive, to say the least - watch a short clip of it above.

It's reminiscent of some AI tutors and educational tools that OpenAI has demonstrated - except this time, it's for gaming. This feature will undoubtedly make its way to Xbox consoles and hardware, but as it will require NPU hardware to run, it probably won't arrive for televisions until Microsoft launches its next-gen Xbox console.