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Anthem will use the power of global-spanning storms to shape and change the in-game world.

BioWare's main goal with Anthem was always to make a world that's constantly changing. But this isn't just figurative PR-speak to describe post-launch content and live service expansion; there's a literal mechanism of change built into Anthem's online world. Like the tides continually shift the sands and ancient rivers molded canyons of our real-world, so too will Anthem's spontaneous storms alter its digital landscape.

These dangerous storms are called Cataclysms, and they're global world events that are simultaneous to all players (this was another milestone BioWare aimed for with Anthem). I was instantly intrigued by these storms when Anthem was revealed, and saw tons of opportunity for EA and BioWare to engage players. Cataclysms not only spawn ferociously-powerful titans seemingly from another dimension, almost like the world tore itself open to let monsters bleed through, but can actually affect the environment itself and reveal new mysteries to uncover. In this way, Anthem's storms are akin to Fallout 76's nukes.

EA plans to expand its premium game subscription service to another major platform, the publisher said in its recent Fiscal Q3'19 earnings call.

EA's third quarter was a bit rough. It missed Battlefield V sales targets by 1 million copies and its new Origin Access Premiere subscription didn't quite catch on. The company missed its earnings guidance by as much as $116 million, and stocks dropped by over 13% as a result. EA says it's doubling down on more engagement-driven plans like subscriptions and has "hard choices to make" about its future investments.

In an effort to reach a broader audience, engage more players, and make more money, the publisher will bring its EA Access subscription to another platform. The publisher didn't say which platform the service could come to, but I'm betting on PlayStation 4 over Switch given the console's huge 90 million install base. The Switch's half-portability doesn't make it an opportune system for subscriptions, at least for third-party ones, and EA wants to attract the widest pool of gamers as possible.

Take-Two Interactive says 2K's big new game is still set for a FY2020 launch, and it's probably Borderlands 3.

While Take-Two nor 2K Games have officially announced Borderlands 3, Gearbox's Randy Pitchford confirmed the game has been in active development since 2016. Pitchford even showed Borderlands 3 prototype footage at GDC 2017, discussing various lighting techniques and tools being used in Unreal Engine 4 to make the game. Now we know the game will launch sometime in 2019 or early 2020.

The only thing we've heard from 2K parent company Take-Two is a nebulous release teaser, which has been re-affirmed in recent earnings filings. "In addition, the unannounced title from one of 2K's biggest and most beloved franchise remains on track for launch during fiscal 2020. 2K will have more to share in the coming months," Take-Two Interactive President Karl Slatoff said in the Fiscal Q3'19 earnings call.

EA's visibility into the future is quite far, and it sees new IPs popping up in the coming years.

Games industry titan EA recently saw its growth streak disrupted by disappointing sales, game delays, and subscription misses. The company missed its Fiscal Q3'19 guidance by as much as $116 million on the backs of lower than expected Battlefield V sales. EA stock has since fallen more than 13%. In response to these disappointing results, EA says it will make "hard decisions" about its future investments, hinting game cancellations and key business operation shifts are in order. Typically when this happens games-makers move their focus on sure-fire, safer bets and stay in established franchises like Battlefield.

But even as the publisher opens its new "Creative Council," which advises in future game development, marketing, and tactical business decisions, EA isn't giving up on new IPs. Company CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed EA's new IP pipeline is quite robust and we may even see totally new franchises launch during its Fiscal Year 2020 timeline.

Red Dead Redemption 2 continues its juggernaut sales spree, and should make strong revenues over time with its online mode.

Rockstar's latest Red Dead Redemption 2 Western opus has sold-in (shipped) more than 23 million copies across the globe, Take-Two Interactive confirmed In its latest Fiscal Q3'19 earnings report. This feat is doubly impressive given RDR2 is only available on consoles and has yet to launch on PC (the publisher still won't confirm a port). The game, which is hailed as one of the most realistic and impressive releases of this generation, is the biggest weekend retail seller and made over $700 million in three days time.

"According to The NPD Group, based on combined physical and digital sales in the U.S., Red Dead Redemption 2 was the best-selling video game of 2018. To date, Red Dead Redemption 2 has sold-in more than 23 million units worldwide," Take-Two wrote in the earnings release.

EA just had a hard quarter. Thanks to strategic moves like game delays, the company missed its Fiscal Q3'19 earnings forecasts by tens of millions of dollars. Battlefield V sold 7.3 million copies, 1 million less than EA had hoped, and failed to spark Origin Access subscriptions. EA says this was because Battlefield V's unfortunate November release timing. Mobile revenues also dropped by 22%. These numbers, which sparked a 12% stock plummet, have shaken EA a bit and the publisher says it must re-evaluate its game plan. In short we could see more cancellations, delays, and a stronger focus on live services as EA focuses more on sure-fire bets.

During EA's Fiscal Year Q3'19 earnings, company CEO Andew Wilson revealed some interesting new things about how the publisher operates. Wilson says EA now has a "Creative Council" that helps determine which projects are worth investing in, and affirms more organizational changes will come. This comes at a time when EA has cancelled multiple Star Wars games, including Visceral's Project Ragtag, a carry-over from 2012's Star Wars 1313, and the open-world Project Orca game from EA Vancouver, which was a carry-over from Ragtag. EA also shut down Visceral Games after cancelling the ambitious action-adventure game that would've basically been Star Wars Uncharted. Future EA games and even its future game streaming subscription plan could face similar shifts, cancellations, and changes.

"We are a learning organization. Over the last six months, we've made organizational changes to shape our teams against our priorities for the future," Wilson said in the earnings call.

Just like clockwork, Nintendo have announced two new titles for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers, the Big N will be adding Super Mario Bros. 2 and Kirby's Adventure.

Last month, Nintendo added Blaster Master and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link to the NES library. This month we have Super Mario Bros. 2 and Kirby's Adventure being added to the NES library of games, the games will be available from February 13th.

For users that don't yet have Nintendo Switch Online, the membership only costs $4 USD a month, or $8 USD for three months or a $20 USD yearly payment. Families that have multiple Nintendo Switch's in the household will be able to utilize Family Membership, the cost comes in at $35 USD and grants access to online for up to eight Nintendo Account members. If you are interested in games such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate or Mario Kart 8 Ultimate, Nintendo Switch Online will be required for online play, visit the official Nintendo website for more information here.

NetherRealm Studios has confirmed two characters for the coming Mortal Kombat 11, players will be able to speed into the battle with Kabal, and also be able to enjoy the returning character D'Vorah.

During the first Kombat Kast, a livestream that is based around Mortal Kombat, co-creator and director at NetherRealm Studios, Ed Boon teased fans with the announcement of these two characters. Boon showcased the above gameplay video of Kabal to fans viewing the live stream, then video was then uploaded to official Mortal Kombat YouTube Channel for the publics pleasure. We can see Kabal doing what he does best, speeding through his enemies and using his hookswords to disembody each and every part of whoever is standing in his way.

We also get a great display of Kabal's grab combo's, range spacing saw blades, upper cuts, vital spot breaks and an incredibly gory fatality. We see Kabal grab his victim and run at extreme speeds while dragging his opponent along the ground, Kabal then throws the opponent forward only to appear on the receiving end ready to slice them in half with his hook sword. Ed Boon also confirms that D'Vorah who debuted in Mortal Kombat X would also be returning for Mortal Kombat 11, there was no gameplay shown of her though. Mortal Kombat 11 will be released onto the Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One and PS4 on April 23rd, 2019.

There is no doubt that within this day and age that everyone who is using mobile messaging apps regrets some things that they have said to other people. Users never had the ability to delete this messages, but now they can.

Until today, users on Facebook Messenger never had the ability to delete or edit sent messages via their app. Facebook actually previously rejected the idea of allowing users to remove or edit their personal sent messages, but now it seems their tune has changed on the topic. Perhaps the reconsideration for the option being available to the public came after Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg was caught removing messages from his personal messenger account.

Users on both iOS and Android will now have the ability to delete messages within 10 minutes after its being sent. If you desire to delete messages that have been sent longer than 10 minutes ago, there could be a way around it. Users could attempt changing the date and time within their phone after clearing the app data, this could make the Messenger app think that those messages were sent only 10 minutes ago which in turn could allow for the 'delete' option to be available.

Rare are attempting to get as many potential pirates and captains as they can onto Sea of Thieves, as the developer and publisher has announced that the title will be going free-to-play for a limited amount of time.

Existing players of Sea of Thieves will be able to invite friends who don't own a copy, those friends will be able to enjoy the high seas with their fellow pirates for a whole week starting February 6th and ending on February 13th. Players that own a physical copy, digital copy or are using Xbox Games Pass to enjoy Sea of Thieves will eligible to utilize this recommending a friend option, so no one is going to be missing out.

If you would like to grab some codes for some of your friends that were a little undecided on whether they want to pick up a copy of Sea of Thieves, head over to the Sea of Thieves website and find the 'friends-play-free' open at the top of the page, a direct link can be found here. Once you are on that page the website will prompt you with your Microsoft account details. Once you are logged in you will be gifted with your three friends codes which can you can send along to your friends to begin your voyage. Sea of Thieves is available on the Xbox One and PC now.

If you are a Disney fan and like a bit of action along with some of your favourite childhood characters then Kingdom Hearts III may just be your best cup of tea.

Square Enix has taken to the official Twitter account of Disney's Kingdom Hearts to announce that their recently released Kingdom Hearts III has made it to over 5 million gamers. If you are unsure what Kingdom Hearts is exactly, the Square Enix developed title is based around crossovers from the Disney and Final Fantasy. Each of the characters play a decently large part in the story and many of them are viewed as beloved childhood characters. So if you enjoy a bit of action with an awesome story alongside some characters that you may of watched in movies as children, then Kingdom III may be worth your attention.

The celebrations from Square Enix come in the form of "thank you" to each player who picked up their own copy of Kingdom Hearts III. On a side note - I would also expect due to the nostalgia surrounding the Kingdom Hearts franchise, and not to mention the solid story that it has, that these sales numbers will increase much further beyond 5 million. The game has only been out 8 days and it has managed to reach the 5 million mark making it the fastest-selling game in the Kingdom Hearts franchise. I will be very interested to see what the sales statistics are like at the month mark. Kingdom Hearts III is currently available for the Xbox One and PS4.

As you can see in the picture which we took today, at US based retailer Best Buy, "Always Connected PCs" have been missing from store shelves. This appears to have been an issue which started in late December last year with the Lenovo Yoga c630.

For the last month or so, we have been under the assumption that the lack of availability from at least one major OEM was due to high sales. Today we learned from sources that it is not just popularity that is currently keeping it out of consumers hands, but a problem with a recent software update due to an issue with drivers from Lenovo and Microsoft.

Since we were first shown initial prototypes back at Computex 2017 of Qualcomm Snapdragon silicon, we knew these types of systems would be highly popular and successful in the marketplace. We have been told this has been resolved and the devices should be making their way back to the shelves of a retail store near you soon.

Deep Silver might be in Deep Sh*t over the recent explosion of crap regarding Metro Exodus and its move to the Epic Game Store, but now the team is teasing the game and its optimizations on Microsoft's beefed-up Xbox One X console. You can check out the new 'Artyom's Nightmare' trailer below:

In the latest episode of Inside Xbox, Huw Beynon from Deep Silver explained that Metro Exodus will be running at native 4K on the Xbox One X, as well as full HDR and Dolby Atmos support. The developer confirmed this last year, with the Xbox One X version of Metro Exodus running at native 4K and locked at 30FPS. The new trailer takes an interesting stylized look at the game, and almost feels like it is pieced together in a way never-before-seen in this way with Metro.

Metro Exodus drops on February 15 on the PC, Xbox One and PS4 with the PC version exclusive to the Epic Games Store until 2020 while pre-orders on Steam will still continue to work on Steam.

EA is on a roll right now with the just-released and still exploding Apex Legends from Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment, with the new free-to-play battle royale shooter to be joined in its ranks at EA with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order later this year, and some surprises.

During EA's recent financial results call for its third fiscal quarter 2018, that a new Need for Speed game in development. We can expect that Ghost Games will once again get knuckles deep in coding the new game, which we should expect to roll out with the EA DICE graphics engine, Frostbite. Frostbite might have started out powering Battlefield games, but now that EA owns DICE we are seeing Frostbite powering countless games.

EA COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen explained: "FIFA stands out as a robust franchise through a tumultuous year in the video game industry. Elsewhere in the business, we're making adjustments to improve execution and we're refocusing R&D. Looking forward, we're delighted to launch Anthem, our new IP, to grow Apex Legends and related Titanfall experiences, to deliver new Plants vs. Zombies and Need for Speed titles, and to add Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order to our sports titles in the fall".

Over the Super Bowl weekend, authorities in Georgia arrested 21 people in "Operation Interception", with the ages of those arrested between 20-25 who traveled near the Atlanta metro area trying to pick up children for sex. Yeah, disgusting... and a game studio worker and Twitch streamer was one of them.

Tommy Cheung worked for Hi-Rez Studios, the developer behind big games like Smite and Paladins, and doubled as a partnered Twitch streamer. Cheung was arrested over the weekend in Brookhaven, Georgia where he was charged with using a compute service "to seduce, solicit, lure or entice" a child, which is a felony in Georgia.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a press release that this child sex sting was months in the works, adding: "The goal of 'Operation Interception' was to arrest persons who communicate with children on-line, have sexually explicit conversations, and then travel to meet them for the purpose of having sex. Additionally, the operation targeted those who are willing to exploit children by purchasing sex with a minor".

Oculus might have its all-in-one Quest headset coming in Spring 2019 for $399 on the way, but now rumors are starting back up about the next-gen Rift, something that will reportedly be called "Rift S".

The news is coming from Upload VR that said it found new filenames in Oculus' PC application that teases Rift S, with the outlet saying they found the Rift S mentions in the UI code. These mention tease that the purported Oculus Rift S headset would feature built-in cameras, removing the need for external cameras that take up additional USB ports and power.

TechCrunch reported last November that the Rift S name was a possibility, and that it would roll out with inside-out tracking. The built-in cameras would allow Rift S owners to walk around in an environment without the external accessories and setup required, with a bunch of VR accessories that are in development rolling out with inside-out tracking support as it makes it much easier to get into the VR world either at home, work, or on-the-go if you take Rift S with you.

Buying a Nintendo Switch just for Zelda: Breath of the Wild is so worth it, but now with the latest version of Cemu (v1.15.2) you can run Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the right hardware that is, at 4K and between 60-100FPS.

Cemu has been updated to v1.15.2 and has boosted performance to a bunch of titles, one of which includes Zelda: Breath of the Wild. BSoD Gaming has covered this with a gorgeous video showing BotW running at 4K and between 60-100FPS on an Intel Core i7-8700K and GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card. The new version of Cemu also adds improvements to the audio, but the big thing here is that "all areas of gameplay" in Zelda: Breath of the Wild can be cranked to 4K at 60-100FPS on the 8700K + GTX 1080 Ti combo.

The above video is a great run through on how to get Cemu 1.15.2 installed and configured to run games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild on your PC. Now we just need Nintendo to make games for the PC natively, especially when they look and run this smooth. Imagine what games would look like with true 4K textures and assets. Oh boy.

Apex Legends has already racked up 1 million players in its first day available, with Respawn Entertainment's new Titanfall-infused battle royale game also setting records on Twitch.

In the first few hours after Apex Legends launched it was the most-viewed game on Twitch with over 340,000 viewers and hitting a peak of 500,000 or so. This means that newcomer Apex Legends was beating out established Twitch regular games like Fortnite, Overwatch, League of Legends, DOTA 2, and World Of Warcraft. This is obviously day one, so we'll have to keep our eyes on viewership across all platforms in the coming weeks and months to see if Apex Legends has staying power with gamers.

Respawn hooked up with some of the biggest influencers, YouTubers and Twitch streamers in the world for the launch of Apex Legends, which seems to be paying off. It drove enough hype to the game to give it a huge launch in terms of downloads and players, as well as video views and streams.

EA misses its third quarter earnings forecast on heels of weaker Battlefield V performance and a sparse slate, causing stock to drop by over 10%.

In its recent Fiscal Q3'19 financials EA missed its revenue and sales targets by nearly $100 million. In the quarter, which company CEO Andrew Wilson called "difficult," EA earned $1.289 billion in net revenue and $1.609 billion in net sales, missing forecasts by $86 million and $116 million respectively. Company shares then plummeted by 12.69% in after-hours trading and shaved off billions from its valuation.

The main reason for the miss was Battlefield V, the only big game released in Q3, which underperformed to EA's expectations when put up against holiday games like Call of Duty Black Ops 4 and Red Dead Redemption 2. EA CFO Blake Jorgensen attributes Battlefield V's lower sales to being put "against heavily discounted competition," but gamer-wide controversy may have also played a significant role. EA made the decision to delay Battlefield V into the heart of Black Friday in November due to the pushback of multiple mobile games, Mr. Jorgensen said in the earnings call.

In an effort to help dig itself out of a big financial hole, Starbreeze Studios is doing what every major publisher does when they need fast money: make a mobile game based on its most successful IP.

Starbreeze is in trouble. The publisher's new The Walking Dead game sold poorly on PC, and coupled with years of mismanagement, caused the studio to file for bankruptcy. Now the company has teamed up with Universal to release a Payday mobile game.

The publisher delivers lots of contractual details in the announcement but doesn't really talk about the game, Payday: Crime War. Universal will give Starbreeze advance cash to make, operate, and maintain the game over five years, but Universal can pull out of the deal at any time if certain metrics aren't met.