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Today NetEase and Blizzard announced a publishing extension agreement that brings key games to China through 2023.

Chinese titan NetEase is mostly known for mobile games, but it also licenses the right to publish strong AAA franchises in the region, namely Blizzard games. The company currently runs popular games like World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, Diablo III, and Overwatch in China, and is overseeing development of the Diablo Immortal mobile game for the region.

This extension comes at an interesting time. Blizzard is working on multiple new games and projects including Diablo 4, a possible Overwatch sequel, a handful of mobile games based on key franchises, and even new IP. With NetEase's help, this strong pipeline of games will likely see their way into mainland China, a calculated move that'll earn Activision-Blizzard strong revenues. China is expected to rake in $37.98 billion in 2018's total gaming revenues, largely from mobile games.

You know those fake mock-up renders that pop up when searching next-gen consoles on Google images? The Mad Box's final design concept looks even more artificial.

Slightly Mad Studios, the devs behind Project CARS, is inexplicably making a next-gen console called the Mad Box. After teasing multiple designs of the system and making outlandish claims on performance, company CEO Ian Bell confirmed the Mad Box's finalized concept. The result is a futuristic console box with RGB lighting, a touchscreen front panel, curved winged vents, and a rather thin-looking chassis. Ultimately it looks very expensive to mass produce, and Bell notes that the design could be "slightly amended over time."

What's outside matters little, and gamers know it's what inside that counts. Although it's more than 3 years away, the Mad Box will be a powerhouse equivalent to a high-end PC from 2021, Bell asserts, with specs to enable native 4K gaming. The box sounds like an incredibly risky idea that could tank the games developer.

Although Bungie split up with Activision, the independent dev could still release a Destiny mainline sequel sometime next year.

Destiny 3 could happen as soon as 2020, analyst firm Cowen and Company told investors in a recent letter. Unfortunately we don't have direct access to the letter so we'll be paraphrasing from Gamespot's coverage, but ultimately the firm highlights many of the reasons behind the Bungie-Activision decoupling. Whether or not this prediction will happen depends on the timing, and how Bungie decides to use its big investment from NetEase.

By 2020 it's likely that the hand-off will be complete and Bungie will fully own the Destiny IP. The developer wants to self-publish its own games, meaning Destiny 3 may be released without the backing of a AAA publisher's millions. This is pretty risky for any company, even for Bungie. Luckily Bungie secured a whopping $100 million investment from Chinese juggernaut NetEase to fund its "bold new vision," and we recently posited this vision could see Bungie morph into a developer-publisher with its own label.

The Bungie-Activision split had me thinking about the future of both companies, namely Activision. With Bungie out of the picture, Activision's new core IP focus rests more heavily on Blizzard. Combined with what we know about Blizzard's new IP pipeline, it's possible the strength of these new games made Activision more comfortable with handing Destiny off to Bungie.

Publishers typically like funding and releasing games made by wholly-owned devs. Franchises like Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, and Grand Theft Auto all get special treatment from their respective owners for good reason: pubs get to directly control every aspect of development, and more importantly, live service models. Knowing this, Activision's recent decision to give Bungie complete control of Destiny makes sense. Bungie was (and remains) independent even today, and can now go on its own way and possibly morph into a developer-publisher itself. But there might be more to Activision's decision that meets the eye, and it could have to do with what its partners at Blizzard are working on.

Destiny may have made Activision more reticent on taking new gambles on third-party projects, namely new IPs. We may see the publisher double-down on more "safe bets" in this respect, and any new IPs may be made by first-party studios. With Bungie gone this responsibility could rest strongly on Blizzard's shoulders.

Bungie's 10-year partnership with Activision is now over. The studio now wholly-owns the Destiny IP and will self-publish any future games in the franchise, a move that hints at bigger things down the pipeline.

After six years of back-and-forth tensions, Bungie and Activision are broken up. Signs of pressure were there as far back as 2013 when Activision forced Bungie to re-write the original Destiny story arc, leading to confusing results. The publisher's emphasis on casualized engagement strategies were ever-present, especially when microtransactions first debuted in Destiny alongside its frustrating paid DLC models.

But now all of this can change. Bungie is now the sole bearer of the Destiny IP and with this newfound freedom, it will decide how the series unfolds from all sides--business, content, engagement, etc. The company says it's "ready to publish on its own" and this endeavor may not be limited to just Destiny, but to its brand new IP and future games. Chinese juggernaut NetEase recently invested $100 million into Bungie to fund a "bold new vision," a move that could see Bungie not just remain independent but turn into a publisher-developer.

After nearly three decades of guiding and shaping Blizzard's gaming prowess, co-founder Mike Morhaime will leave the company officially in April 2019.

Ex-Blizzard President and CEO Mike Morhaime relinquished his position back in October 2018, leaving J. Allen Brack to take the reins. The company was wise enough to keep Morhaime on in an advisory capacity after his departure, especially given his long tenure as Blizzard president. But a new SEC filing confirms Morhaime's official termination in April.

This means Morhaime's effect on Activision-Blizzard's Calendar Year 2019 executions will be limited. The ex-exec likely gave advice on Blizzard's upcoming IP incubations as well as how to handle development of new games like Diablo 4.

Since data miners discovered details earlier in the week about the coming expansion to Elder Scrolls Online, Bethesda and Znimax Online Studios scrambled and have announced a livestream to release some official details.

The news comes from the above tweet from the official Elder Scrolls Online Twitter account. The post was caption "Cat's out of the bag!" which is in direct reference to the data mining leaks that were discovered earlier in the week regarding the possible Necromancer classing being added to the game.

Bethesda did not supply any details about what the livestream will include, but for players that want to tune in to subside their curiosity the stream will be held on Twitch.tv and will begin on "January 15 at 2:00 p.m. PT or 5 p.m. EST." The new Elder Scrolls Online expansion has been titled "The Season of the Dragon" and will be available on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Jagex has announced that "Today is the day" and Old School RuneScape will be hit with another massive content update. Bringing new features to the game for both high and low level players.

Jagex has issued out a brand new update titled the 'Kebos Lowlands', the update will be the first new region released for the game since Old School RuneScape went multiplatform on iOS and Android back in October. The Kebos Lowlands update will be bringing content for all levels of players, there will be new monsters to slay, new slayer dungeons, a farming guild, two new quests and of course brand new rewards.

The introduction of the Kebos Lowlands update links all the way back to RuneFest 2018, and since then the community has had an overwhelmingly positive push for the update to be released. Since Old School RuneScape is community driven, before each update is added to the game Jagex present it to the community and allow them to vote on it. An update won't be added to the game if it falls below the 75% agreed margin, the Kebos Lowland update came in at a staggering 95% positive support. For more information regarding the Kebos Lowlands update, visit the official Old School RuneScape blog post by the Old School Team here.

We now have some numbers for the final week of 2018 in Japan regarding software and hardware sales. No surprise whatsoever, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sits upon the top of the software sales as well as the Nintendo Switch for the hardware sales.

Media Crate has not released their numbers for the holiday sales margin, but Famitsu the Japanese video game magazine has. The sales numbers for both hardware and software only cover the last week of 2018 in Japan, ending on December 30th. The numbers showcase that the Nintendo Switch has taken first place for hardware sales with a hefty, 186,806 units sold. Beating the likes of the PS4 which came in at 75,683 units and the Nintendo 3DS with 11,775 units.

Moving onto software sales now, we have Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sitting upon the throne with 253,977 units, and in second place Super Mario Party with 86,265 units. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate also beat Splatoon 2, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Pokemon Let's Go, Pikachu and Eevee! and Super Mario Odyssey. A full list of the sales for both hardware and software have been provided within the entirety of this post.

DICE has officially closed the nominations for their annual DICE Awards, some familiar titles sit at the top with the most nominations, take a guess at who you think they are.

Before jumping into who has been nominated, the DICE Awards are organized by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences who represent over 30,000 development and creative members. The members of The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences bestows awards in the following categories; animation, art direction, character, music composition, sound design, story, technical achievement, action, adventure, family, fighting, role-playing, technical immersive reality, independent game, portability, game design, game direction and of course Game of the Year.

Now that the submissions have been closed, we can talk about what games currently hold the most nominations. As expected, Sony Santa Monica's God of War sits upon the throne with 12 nominations, followed by Marvel and Insomniac Games' Spider-Man with 11 nominations and finally Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2 with 8 nominations. In the entirety of this post you will find each of the categories mentioned above and the respective nominated game for that category. If you want to read up more on the DICE Awards, visit the official website here.

The release for JUMP FORCE is about a month away and Bandai Namco are gearing up for the launch by revealing the dates for the open beta weekends that are about to be upon us.

Bandai Namco have revealed the beginning date for the JUMP FORCE open beta weekend, players will be able to literally 'jump' into Bandai's upcoming game on January 18th. The open beta will give players the opportunity to play the games online versus mode across the span of 17 different characters. Players will be able to battle across five stages and also test out the online lobby using six preset avatars.

The open beta will last for three hours each day and will begin on Friday, January 18th at 4:00am and will finish on Sunday, January 20th at 3:00pm. PS4 and Xbox One owners will be able to pre-load the beta on January 17th so its ready to play when the weekend starts. If you are interested in more news about JUMP FORCE, check out the character reveals for; Kenshin and Shishio, SSGSS Vegeta/Goku & Golden Frieza and the $260 JUMP FORCE: Premium Edition. JUMP FORCE will be officially launched on the 15th of February.

Earlier this week we caught wind of two new Alien games coming to market, one of which formated for iOS and Android and the other coming under the genre of a MMO shooter. But what about Alien Isolation 2? Don't get your hopes up.

In a recent interview with Variety, TQ Jefferson, Vice President of FoxNet spoke at length about what fans of the Alien franchise should expect from the coming games and recent announcements. Jefferson clarified that any connection between the controversial Diablo Immortal game and the coming Alien: Blackout is bogus, here is what he had to say "I can see some people making a connection between 'Diablo' and this, but I think it's a bit of a leap. The 'Diablo' backlash was focused on free-to-play and mobile, our game is a premium mobile game where you pay one price and you're done. It's a contained experience."

Jefferson also talked about how fans were excited to hear news about a potential sequel to Alien: Isolation. The Vice President responded with "But it's not that binary. There are a lot of stories we can tell in the franchise. We can tell more stories about Amanda Ripley without it being an 'Isolation' game." He further backed up his response by saying that the team at 20th Centuary Fox believes that they are very much in-tune with what their fanbase wants from an Alien game and did know about how some fans wanted news regarding a potential Alien: Isolation 2. Lastly, Jefferson confirmed that "Isolation 2" is currently not in development.

Bungie has officially split away from Activision in a recent announcement and will be taking their Destiny franchise with them. These announcement raised questions to whether Destiny would remain on the Blizzard Battle.net client.

Both Activision and Bungie announced that they would officially be parting ways from each-other with the massive publishing conglomerate signing the publishing rights for Destiny back over to Bungie. Activision posted a join statement between Bungie and themselves onto the Activision Twitter page. Here is what it had to say, "Today, we're announcing plans for Bungie to assume full publishing rights and responsibilities for the Destiny Franchise. Going foward, Bungie will own and develop the franchise, and Activision will increase its focus on owned IP and other projects."

Activision and Bungie say they are both committed to this transition being as seamless as possible on behalf of all Destiny players around the globe. "Activision and Bungie are committed to a seamless transition for the Destiny franchise and will continue to work closely together during the transition on behalf of the community of Destiny players around the world." Since the split is no official, fans wondered if this would mean Destiny would be pulled from the Battle.net client, the Blizzard customer service Twitter account has confirmed this will not be the case. "Destiny 2 will still receive full support on BattleNet and we do not anticipate any disruption to our services or your gameplay experience."

Recent news has confirmed that Destiny developer Bungie has officially left publishing company Activision and will be taking their Destiny franchise with them.

The news comes from the official Bungie and Activision Twitter accounts, with both companies issuing out a statement confirming that Bungie will soon be acquiring the publishing rights for Destiny and disembarking from the Activision label. Bungie took to their website in the form of a blog post to further shine some light on the situation, "We have enjoyed a successful eight-year run and would like to thank Activision for their partnership on Destiny. Looking ahead, we're excited to announce plans for Activision to transfer publishing rights for Destiny to Bungie. With our remarkable Destiny community, we are ready to publish on our own, while Activision will increase their focus on owned IP projects."

Bungie continued to express themselves via the blogpost, reasurring fans of Destiny that the roadmap that was released for the most recent game will still be fulfilled in all its entirety. "We'll continue to deliver on the existing Destiny roadmap, and we're looking forward to releasing more seasonal experiences in the coming months, as well as surprising our community with some exciting announcements about what lies beyond." If you are interested in reading the official statement for yourself, visit the official Bungie website here.

Later in 2019 Breaking Bad fans will be gifted with their very own mobile strategy game from Plamee. The game will feature elements from the TV and of course the spread of main characters.

Breaking Bad being one the most critically-acclaimed television shows ever created will soon be getting its very own mobile strategy game. As expected, the mobile strategy game will put players in the shoes of Walter White and creation of his meth empire. Players will have to grow the empire while also making difficult decisions that will impact the game.

The mobile app will be created by game developer Plamee Games and published by FTX Games and has been titled Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements. A recent statement from Breaking Bad's Creative Lead, Vince Gilligan says "[FTX Games] care as much about the details as our creative team, and I have been very impressed with their commitment to building an authentic extension of the series' story universe. I think this will be a fun experience for fans, to interact with characters from Breaking Bad in a completely new way." Unfortunately, gameplay and a release date for Criminal Elements has not been disclosed as of yet. At the moment all we have to go off of is the broad 2019 release window.

SEGA has issued out a new PC port, this time bringing the crazy love triangle puzzler game 'Catherine' to the PC. Players can now dive into the story of love and betrayal via the Steam listing here.

We first got a tease of a possible Catherine port coming to the Steam by the Bayonetta Steam page who released a sly image of sheep with the caption "baa", more on that story here. SEGA and developer ATLUS have decided to bring Catherine to the PC under the title of "Catherine Classic", players that decide to pick up the title will be able to play in 4K, have an unlocked framerate, customizable keyboard and mouse controls and more.

For those that don't know, Catherine was originally released back on the Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2011. Catherine combines difficult puzzles with a gripping romantic love story between Vincent and two females, Katherine and Catherine. Players can navigate the story in a multitude of ways and will be faced with difficult decisions to make that could lead to even bigger repercussions.

CES 2019 - AMD is promising many more Radeon graphics cards to be released in the year, with CTO Mark Papermaster chatting with The Street about an entire new wave of Radeon cards coming in the year.

Papermaster confirmed AMD isn't shifting away from the mid-range market since its debut of the higher-end Radeon VII unveiled during CES 2019, with Papermaster saying: "We are really excited to start on the high-end with our 7nm Radeon VII and you will see the announcements over the course of the year as we refresh across our Radeon program".

I would expect to see Navi unveiled just before or during Computex 2019 and priced lower than Radeon VII (which costs $699). There is a huge gap between the newly-refreshed-refreshed-again Radeon RX 590 which is based on the 12nm node and third-time-refreshed Polaris 10 architecture. Radeon RX 590 costs $279 and there's nothing between that and the upcoming Radeon VII apart from Radeon RX Vega 56/64. Older cards that consume way too much power, and leave gamers buying GeForce RTX 2060 and GTX 1070/1070 Ti/1080 because they're far more power efficient.

At CES 2019, Seagate announced the world's first SMB/SME SSD designed solely for use in a NAS. The new Ironwolf 110 features many of the features of the company's Ironwolf HDD product line, like advanced health monitoring, just with solid state media rather than rotating disks.

We've urged companies for years to build a NAS-optimized SSD with high endurance and increased monitoring features but Seagate is the first out of the gate with all of the right pieces together. The material released this week show the new drives feature Durawrite technology, a carryover from the SandForce/LSI IP acquisition.

Seagate tells us the new Ironwolf SSD fills two roles for system administrators. The drives can operate in a system as a high-speed cache or run as the primary storage media in an all-flash array.

Xbox thrives on the billion-dollar engagement market, namely from microtransactions, live services, subscriptions, and other community features. But it's found an ingenious way to mold all of these things together in one cohesive ecosystem that's become the new Xbox brand.

Microsoft will soon pay users rewards points for playing Game Pass titles, a move that fits perfectly into its service-focused business model. The new promo is part of the Xbox Quests program announced in 2017, but it's only for active Game Pass subscribers.

Microsoft doles out points of its own rewards currency to players who complete objectives in Game Pass games, essentially paying you Microsoft Rewards Points for unlocking achievements. Completing all the objectives only gives you 2100 MS Rewards points (less then $3).

BioWare has big ambitions for Dragon Age 4, and plans might include some new form of interactive multiplayer or live-based content.

EA makes billions from online-based content, namely monetizing live service games. This trend has bled over into singleplayer games, and was found in Dragon Age: Inquisition's online multiplayer with its purchasable microtransactions, and may continue to the next big mainline Dragon Age game. A new job listing for a Dragon Age franchise Technical Director calls for applicants having experience with developing multiplayer games. Admittedly this on its own isn't enough evidence, but we can make a compelling argument when we join it with more info.

We already know how EA's business model works. Nearly every EA game has some sort of online hook to it that keeps players engaged with new content, and offers opportunities to spend money on digital items. Microtransactions--more specifically live gaming--are the bedrock of EA's strategy. So it's no surprise that Dragon Age 4 could have live elements of some kind that will be monetized (again, we saw it in Dragon Age: Inquisition).