Firaxis may be working on a new series outside of its well-known Civilization and XCOM franchises to help fortify the 2K Games label.

Firaxis is just one of 2K Games' many development arms, but is arguably one of the best at consistently delivering successful hits. For a while now the studio has been synonymous with two major franchises: XCOM and the Civilization RTS games, but that could change as the team branches out into new things. According to 2K Games President David Ismailer, Firaxis could be working on a brand new IP or franchise that taps the vein of familiarity while offering something new.

"We did Civ, then we did XCOM, and now we're looking hopefully to add one more to that portfolio," Ismailer said in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz.

As more and more games-makers backpedal on lootboxes, Rocket League developer Psyonix has revealed the odds of its in-game crate drops in an effort to build transparency.

Lootboxes have caught a lot of flak over throughout the last year: the Battlefront II controversy ignited a big pushback from gamers and even got legislators taking notice of the potential gambling practices. While some games like Rocket League use a cosmetics to sustain its game, the skins themselves are wrapped in a randomized crate-and-key system that allows players to buy digital keys to unlock the lootboxes. Now the devs reveal just how rare Rocket League's loot really is.

In a recent blog post, Psyonix revealed odds of specific items in any given crate. Some are actually exceedingly rare. For example, when you get a crate and unlock it with a key there's a 12% chance for an import item and a super rare 4% chance to grab an exotic grade drop. The studio asserts that the odds have always remained the same since 2016.

The Ghost Recon Wildlands Special Operation 2 update arriving to gamers on July 24 has been detailed, the crossover update contains Rainbow 6 Siege Operators and will be including a bunch of new content.

Special Operations 2 will be coming with a brand new story mission, this mission will be based around a new women based team titled Team Rainbow. The mission is called Operation Archangel and will be centered around three Rainbow 6 Siege Operators: Valkyrie, Twitch and Caveira. Valkyrie and Twitch are required to find Caveira and to do this Valkyrie contacts her friend Karen Bowman who is a Ghost and is operating in the area. Players will be following Caveira's through Bolivia, tracking her down while also delving more into the operators story.

A Rainbow 6 Gear pack will also be added within this update, it will be containing: Caveira's Luison handgun, HK 416 assault rifle and Valkyrie and Twitch cosmetics. The above video also details that players will be given two new classes Toxic and Surgeon. Toxic is based on Rainbow 6 Siege's Smoke as the class uses poisonous gas to suffocate enemies from a ranged distance. The Special Operations 2 update will be arriving on July 24th, for more information regarding the new update, visit the official Ubisoft website here.

Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix have released 10 minutes of gameplay footage for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The footage showcases what it will be like to be immersed within a world that has been untouched by civilization.

The footage shows players the town of Paititi, it has been titled the largest hub world ever for a Tomb Raider game and it truly does look spectacular. Players will be able to enjoy the multiple districts within the huge city, marketplaces will contain vendors for item trading, there will be pure exploration points that will be challenging and also side quests scattered all throughout the biome.

While Lara is walking through the city it is revealed that players will have the option to increase the immersion of game. This can be done by changing the NPC's language back to their native tongue, the goal of this is to feel more apart of the game while at the same time drawing a distinct line between the native people of Paititi and you being an outsider. This option can be toggled on and off at any given moment. Players will also have the option of setting 'exploration difficulty,' the options will range from easy, normal and hard. In the video we see Lara leaving the city to explore the jungle, it is mentioned that the difficulty is currently set to 'hard,' this is why their is no white paint on locations that Lara can climb.

Comic-Con 2018 - During this years Comic-Con 2018 at San Diego, Insomniac Games and Marvel's Spider-Man was a big talking point. So big, that a panel was held with the developers and publishers of the title revealing more details about the future release.

The panel consisted of Creative Director Bryan Intihar, Art Director Jacinda Chew, Game Director Ryan Smith and Marvel Games boss Bill Rosemann. Throughout the panel, Intihar revealed that there is still many more villains to be showcased to players, at the moment we have only seen Mister Negative, Kingpin, Electro, Shocker, Scorpion, Rhino, and Vulture. Tombstone has also been teased, as well as the voice actor for Rhino said that Dr. Otto Octavius will also be included but neither of these have been officially confirmed.

Jacinda Chew, the Art Director for Insomniac Games spoke about how the developers go about designing a villain. She discusses the thought process of each of the choices and how some villains actually required a modernization in some forms. Here is what she had to say: "One of the first things we do when we design a villain is look at the history, of what's already been done before. So, Electro is a really great example - with Electro, he's green and he's yellow, but he's also got this giant star head. It's one of those things that's really iconic about Electro, but we needed to modernize it. [...] So, if you look at Electro, you see we kept that star mask, but now it's a scar on his face. We also kept the green and yellow, and modernized him by giving his powers a reason for being. That's how we go about designing all the villains."

Last week a leak come out from Twitter user Blackite revealing that Dragon Ball FighterZ would be receiving a open beta next month. Bandai Namco has now officially confirmed an open beta for Dragon Ball FighterZ on the Nintendo Switch.

The open beta that was held for the PS4 and Xbox One version of the game arrived with 11 playable characters and numerous different stages and maps for players to enjoy. It is not detailed throughout Bandai Namco's Twitter post how many characters players will have available, they also failed to mention how many stages will be available and what specific ones. We can expect that Bandai will be clearing this up as they move closer to open beta release date.

It has also been announced that the Nintendo Switch version of Dragon Ball FighterZ will be coming with new local multiplayer options, six-player 'Party Match mode,' 2v2 matches and 1v1 fights will also be available. It has not been made clear if the Xbox One, PS4 and PC versions will be receiving these new game modes. The open beta for Dragon Ball FighterZ on the Nintendo Switch begins sometime throughout August for North America, Europe and Japan. The full Nintendo Switch release will be on the 28th of September and for anyone that pre-orders the title they will be receiving bonus content in the form of Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta.

Bethesda has taken to their forums to announce that the beta phase for Fallout 76 will be beginning in October. Bethesda will be selecting users who have pre-ordered the title from participating retailers to be involved within the testing.

Community Administrator, 'Jurassica' posted to the Bethesda forums detailing how players can be involved within the beta, "everyone who pre-orders at a participating retailer will be included in the B.E.T.A." Jurassica says that if players are unsure if they are eligible to participate within the beta that they should check out the Fallout 76's frequently asked questions here.

Unfortunately, it is not revealed what content players will have available to them to test, what we do know is that players will have to decide whether they are going to be working together to survive, or are they going to go rogue and make everyone else's lives much more difficult. Fallout 76's map is 4x the size of Fallout 4, it will be the largest scale dynamic world ever created within the Fallout universe. Bethesda has really gone all out for this release, so hopefully as the beta goes live and people jump into it to test, we continue to hear many more good things about the new world. Fallout 76 will be released on November 14th for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

NVIDIA delayed its GeForce GTX 11 series launch earlier this year which is why we're in such a sad state of affairs with rumors and leaks, and then the mining boom happened right in the middle of all of this, as well as AMD completely failing with its Radeon business... all of which have created the perfect storm for NVIDIA.

Now we have new information that VideoCardz is reporting from YouTuber 'Gamer Meld' who reportedly received an email from an NVIDIA AIB partner that provided some release dates for the GTX 11 series. The email said the GeForce GTX 1180 would be released on August 30, the GTX 1170 and GTX 1180+ on September 30, and the mid-range GTX 1160 on October 30.

So with this new information in-hand, let's break it down.

Qualcomm is a company like no other, the US-based technology giant doesn't sleep in its quest for connecting every human being on the planet with teh fastest mobile connectivity possible, and today is no different.

Enter the new world's "first fully-integrated 5G NR mmWave and sub-6GHz RF modules for smartphone and other mobile devices". It's super-small, with the QTM052 mmWave antenna module family and the QPM56xx sub-6GHz RF module that will be joined with the Snapdragon X50 5G modem that will be powering next generation smartphones.

This might not sound like much, but when I talked to Qualcomm about this last week they said that until now, a working mobile mmWave solution was not possible. It hasn't happened, and wasn't close - and somehow, with most likely dark magic and lots of Redbull, they've pulled it off - 5G will become a reality in 2019.

Samsung is no stranger to directly attacking its main competitor, with the South Korean giant unleashing a bunch of ads in the United States that slam both Apple, and the iPhone X.

It all begins with a long-haired Apple Store employee who is aligned unequivocally with the Apple logo on his T-shirt, giving curious customers some truly hilarious responses to their questions about iPhone X. The entire slew of ads make the Galaxy S9 much more appealing, and that's the entire idea.

The first ad is titled 'Ingenius: Dongle' and is exactly what you think it is: all about Apple stupidly removing the 3.5mm headphone jack from the latest iPhones, and then shoving dongles down your throat that - unsurprisingly, cost you money.

In a not-so-surprising development, Bethesda probably won't let another outside studio put their own unique spin on a Fallout game.

Eight years ago Bethesda briefly handed the reins to its cash-crop Fallout series to Obsidian Entertainment, a move that led to one of the best Fallout games ever made--Fallout: New Vegas. Now Bethesda's internal game dev studio has grown considerably and is tackling a number of epic projects from the new IP Starfield to next sprawling fantasy epic The Elder Scrolls VI. Now that Bethesda Game Studios is working on these big new projects, the stage is set for another cross-studio collaboration for Fallout 5 (brief history: Obsidian was tapped to make New Vegas to push game sales while BGS worked on Skyrim), but that probably won't happen again.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Bethesda's Todd Howard said another cross-studio collaboration probably won't happen again simply because BGS has grown so much...but never say never. "I wouldn't say never. Now that our company is so big, it's always better to keep stuff internal. [A collaboration] becomes less likely, but I could never say never. I thought the Obsidian guys did a fabulous job."

Toshiba announces the world's first 96-layer TLC SSD, the XG6, is shipping to system builders. This line replaces the XG5 and becomes the drive of choice for builders looking to advance system performance by leveraging Toshiba's new BiCS4 TLC memory technology.

The new XG6 features performance up to 3,180 MB/s / 2,960 MB/s sequential read / write and up to 355,000 / 365,000 IOPS random read and write speeds. The series currently ships in three sizes from 256GB to 1TB (1024GB), all in a single-sided M.2 2280 form factor.

Just days ago Toshiba and manufacturing partner Western Digital announced BiCS4 QLC with 1.33Tbit capacity die. The XG6 utilizes new 96-layer 512Gbit TLC die from the same BiCS4 family. The flash features a 40% footprint reduction on the wafer. Toshiba is using string stacking technology to build the first 48 layers and then dropping a second 48-layers on top. Samsung is the only company to announce a true 90+ layer product without using string stacking technology.

Reports indicate Microsoft's next-gen family of consoles will include a streaming box designed to leverage its new game-streaming service.

Not so long ago I posited a theory: what if the new Xbox Scarlett ring of consoles included a low-cost streaming-only box? Now sources tell Thurrot.com's Brad Sams that Microsoft is indeed taking this tact, and that Redmond may have solved key latency issues.

Sources say the online-only streaming device will be powered by Microsoft's beefy cloud infrastructure, and that it'll be a low-power box that costs less than typical next-gen hardware. The games themselves will be compatible across the entire family--you can play the same titles on the Xbox One X successor as well as the cloud box--but the streaming mini-console won't be as beefy spec-wise.

Nintendo is taking legal action to shut down two prominent ROM sites, signalling its war against piracy is far from over.

Nintendo of America has filed a complaint against two websites that host free files of its copyrighted and trademarked games in an effort to curb piracy. As of the time of writing both websites--LoveROMs and LoveRetro.com--have been shut down, and the sites' owner is now embroiled in what could be a very punishing case that could end up costing millions in damages.

In the court document, which was filed on July 19 in Arizona, Nintendo says the websites enacted "brazen and mass-scale infringement of Nintendo's intellectual property rights" by delivering access to older NES, SNES, Gamecube and other platforms' titles. The company further says the websites have "damaged Nintendo, infringes and threatens irreparable injury to Nintendo's intellectual property rights" and it's seeking considerable damages of up to $150,000 for each count of game infringement as well as a whopping up to $2 million for each offending use of Nintendo's trademarks.

Titan Comics, the publisher for some well known video game comics such as Sea of Thieves and Bloodborne, have announced with Blizzard that a new four-part Diablo comic book series is in the works.

The series will be written by Marv Wolfman and will follow a group of scholars and crusaders as they traverse the lands in search of the true foundations and origins of humanity. The illustrations will be done by Piotr Kowalski, two sketches have already been released, they are not colored but do showcase some characters.

Unfortunately there isn't much more information about the upcoming series, all that we know is that the four-part mini-series will be releasing sometime this year. We will be updating you with any new information coming out about this series. If you haven't heard of Diablo before, the third installment into the video game series was released back in 2012, since then it has sold more the 30 million units and can be played on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. If you want to check out Diablo III, visit the official website here.

Comic-Con 2018 - Matt Groening, the creator behind the longest running T.V show ever The Simpsons, has released a brand new Netflix trailer for his upcoming new series Disenchantment.

Groening has decided to leave his comfortable family life he created in The Simpsons and turn it on it's head, now taking viewers back to medieval times where they will be following a princess called Bean. Bean is the princess of Dreamland and the trailer begins with her almost marrying her prince, just before she is about to seal the deal she almost kills him, which then results in her running away to discover herself before she makes the decision to settle down.

Bean runs away with two companions, one being called Elfo who is her own personal Elf and also Luci, her own personal demon. On their travels to find out who Bean really is, Bean and her companions run into several other animals and mythical creatures, harpies, ogres, sprites just to name a few. Groening has stepped into a short 10-episode series packed full of adult comedy, the actors that are starring in the upcoming show are: Abbi Jacobson as Bean, Nat Faxon as Elfo, and Eric Andre as Luci. Disenchanted will be released on Netflix on August 17th.

Comic-Con 2018 - The poster boy for The Walt Disney Company is no doubt Mickey Mouse, the character was created back in 1928 and now Square Enix and Disney are celebrating his 90th birthday with a brand new trailer.

Mickey Mouse began his long career in Plane Crazy, a short film that later went onto becoming Steamboat Willie. Mickey went onto create numerous other movies and then found himself being involved within the Kingdom Hearts series. His first appearance in the series started as a ship's hand to Pete in the Timeless River, exactly like Steamboat Willie.

Mickey later went onto become a student under Yen Sid, a powerful sorcerer and teacher. Yen Sid was actually modeled on Walt Disney himself, the animators took everything Disney had, right down to signature facial features that are recognizable today. The character was designed to pay tribute Walt Disney, which is why Yen Sid is 'Disney' spelled backwards. All of Walt Disney's legacy came from one character Mickey Mouse, the years of animated film success all stems from the structure that Mickey Mouse provided, as Walt Disney said "I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse."

Konami has taken to their Pro Evolution Soccer Twitter account to announce that their PES 2019 title will be receiving a demo for PC and consoles on August 8th.

In celebration of this announcement, the official PES YouTube Channel has released a new demo trailer showcasing what players will have available to them throughout the demo. PES 2019 demo will be featuring twelve different teams and will be arriving with Online Quick Match mode and an offline exhibition mode.

PES 2019 will be focusing on player individuality, meaning that the players on the field will have their unique play styles brought to life. According to the titles official description, players will have"new shooting mechanics" that will cause players to have to "take into account improved ball physics, players and ball position, and player skills and shot styles." The PES 2019 demo will be released on August 8th. If you missed out on the David Beckham 2019 trailer you can catch up on that here, or if you missed the 2 minutes of gameplay footage released last month you can visit that here.

Comic-Con 2018 - The director behind Kong: Skull Island and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid movie, Jordan Vogt-Roberts has sat down with IGN at Comic-Con 2018. The director discussed the possibility of a Zelda movie.

Vogt-Roberts gives some details to what he would be trying to remember if he was given the opportunity of directing a Zelda movie. Vogt-Roberts says "The thing about Zelda is Zelda is not Lord of the Rings, right? You cannot forget how quirky and bizarre Zelda is." He continues this by saying that he would think that a middle ground between the traditional and new Zelda would have to be found in some degree, "I think you need to find a way to actually fuse the traditional Zelda and the very new Zelda."

The director goes into more depth about how he would go about doing this, he says combing "the pure just sort of fantasy of The Ocarina of Time and The Link to the Past" with the "newer pseudo-tech stuff." Vogt-Roberts further clarifies that this would have to be done in a underwhelming manor, meaning that both contrasting time-lines of Zelda would have to be carefully placed together to create a cohesive story, that would satisfy both newer players to Zelda and veteran players. Finalizing what Vogt-Roberts told IGN, he also believes that if he was to direct the movie that "I actually fully think Link should not speak the entire film. I would do a film where he's a silent protagonist."

Blizzard knows how to perfectly milk their franchises, with the developer teaming with Hasbro on some awesome Overwatch Nerf guns.

The first out of the gate will be Reaper's iconic, and if you play Overwatch, super-annoying shotgun. The Nerf gun will sport 8 of Nerf's own Rival rounds, with a ready indicator and safety lock for style. Hasbro and Blizzard haven't talked pricing yet, but I'm sure it's not going to come cheap.

I don't know if it's just me... but Reaper has two shotguns, so it would be disappointing to buy these new Nerf guns out of a pair. What I'd love to see are the guns from other infamous Overwatch characters like D.Va, Soldier 76, and many others. It would be awesome to have a collection of them, including Mei's freezing blaster for example, or even Mercy's pistol.