Latest News - Page 2078

The cost of AAA game development is at all time highs right now, with Shadow of the Tomb Raider costing upwards of $100 million to make.

During a chat with GamesIndustry.biz, Shadow of the Tomb Raider developer Eidos Montreal said: "Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and other different AAA single-player games, cost $75 million to $100 million. And that's production only; it's close to $35 million on the promotion".

This shouldn't surprise anyone as games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider are complex to develop, have hundreds of people working across multiple studios to get it to market on multiple platforms, as well as the associated marketing costs ramping upwards of $35 million.

Huawei is the world's third largest smartphone manufacturer, behind only to behemoths Apple and Samsung, and have now confirmed they will be forcing Bitcoin Wallets on all of their future smartphones.

The Chinese smartphone manufacturer will be baking-in BTC.com's Bitcoin Wallet into their own App Store, with existing Huawei smartphone owners needing (if they want to) download the app from the AppGallery. The Google Play Store isn't available in China, so Huawei users will need to use AppGallery to get it, but future Huawei handsets will have it by default.

Vice President of Business Operations at BTC.com, De la Torre, told Bloomberg: "It's a good opportunity to tap into the Chinese market. The use of cashless payments with apps is very big and the traditional banking system is lacking, so there's a good use case for crypto payments to grow there".

The world of cryptocurrency is expanding faster than most people can imagine, but I didn't think we'd be in the world of the first cryptocurrency-powered beer vending machine at this stage, but here we are.

San Francisco-based startup Civic has teased the world's first "crypto beer vending machine" at the Coindesk Consensus 2018 summit in New York. The beer vending machine would eventually access the blockchain to verify consumers' age, and then throw out a beer or 6 for you.

It will be incredibly simple to do, as the vending machine can be access through the installation of Civic's app on your phone, verify your ID there, and then you'll walk up to the machine and collect your beer. The only way this works is that governments will have to have citizens' ID tied to the blockchain, which I'm sure will happen eventually. Sure, it won't happen overnight, but give it another 5-10 years and stories like this will be remembered.

GIGABYTE is slowly expanding into new markets with their latest venture being the storage industry with the announcement of their new UD PRO Series SSDs.

GIGABYTE's new UD PRO Series SSDs come in both 256GB and 512GB, with GIGABYTE keeping the Ultra Durable (hence 'UD') branding for these new drives. They're only 2.5-inch SATA 6Gbps standard, so we're looking at up to 530MB/sec reads while writes are 500MB/sec.

The company is offering a 3-year warranty on the drive with a sleek black look that won't stand out too much, thankfully there aren't any RGB LEDs on it... yet.

The holy grail of gaming monitors would definitely have to be 4K 120Hz and while the closest we've got officially is the tease of 4K 144Hz G-Sync monitors from NVIDIA, ASUS, and Acer... it looks like it has early competition from Wasabi Mango.

Wasabi Mango is a Korean display manufacturer that have released their new UHD430 monitor that has a native 3840 x 2160 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. The monitor requires dual DP 1.4 ports to hit 4K at 120Hz, buti you'll also get HDR goodness for that as well. There are also 3 x HDMI 2.0 ports, 1 x Toslink optical audio output, and a USB port.

The delicious Wasabi Mango UHD430 is available on eBay right now for $1399.

Fortnite players were disappointed to see the 50 vs 50 game mode live a short life before being removed back in December. Now, Epic Games has brought back the game mode for another limited time; jump into the 50 vs 50 matches now!

Epic Games has taken to Twitter to announce that the new game mode is making its grand return back to the live servers. The game mode is quite self-explanatory, instead of the 100-player lobby being every man for himself or squads, players will be split cleanly down the middle, placing 50 players on one team and 50 players on another.

50 v 50 V2's main change when compared to the game modes first release is that each team will now have their own respective bus. The two buses will start at opposite ends of the map and travel along the same path, this decision made by Epic Games is in hopes of providing players with a more effective dividing system, to in-turn create a more balanced game mode.

Crytek has released their new title Hunt: Showdown and to support their new release the developers are rolling out the first major content update.

The content update which is now live will be adding in five new weapons players get to enjoy, two new tactical bombs, 11 new hunter outfits, 12 new traits and much more.

Other small changes include fall damage, map readability improvements, footstep sound changes and more. The update will be a total of 3.3GB and will be downloaded automatically the next time players open Steam. If you are interested in checking out the full patch notes visit the official Steam HUNT: Showdown patch notes here.

In the recently released Square Enix fiscal year report, it has been revealed that Kingdom Hearts III is planned for release alongside other titles such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Octopath Traveler.

There has been quite a lot of skepticism for Kingdom Hearts III debuting this year, but according to the fiscal year report released by Square Enix, Kingdom Hearts III should be expected sometime closer to the end of the year.

Fans of the series have been teased several times for the upcoming title, for those that have missed these trailers there has been a Classic Kingdom trailer as well as a Monsters, Inc trailer. If you are interested in viewing the Square Enix fiscal year reports yourself check out the official company financial results here.

Facebook is making big moves into the world of cryptocurrency with the latest rumors seeing the social networking company working on their own cryptocurrency, a new crypto that would power payments on Facebook.

Cheddar is behind the news citing sources familiar with the matter that would see Facebook using their new "digital token" to buy and sell things through the social network. Facebook is reportedly also looking into "other ways" they could use this cryptocurrency.

It makes sense, given that Messenger boss David Marcus, recently leaving the chat app side of Facebook to work in the blockchain department of Facebook. Days later the rumors begin of Facebook kick starting their own cryptocurrency, which totally makes sense.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze first began on the Wii U and while the sales of the title weren't fantastic on the older generation console the tide has changed with the titles re-release on the Nintendo Switch.

According to the sales charts by Dengeki Online, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze has sold a massive 90,000 copies in just the first week of release in Japan. This figure is almost three times the amount that was originally sold on the Wii U version of the game.

The sales numbers within the first week suggest that Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze has sold 65% of its initial shipment. When compared to the Wii U's version, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze only sold 35% of its shipment within its first week of release.

Motion Twin, the developers behind the smash-hit indie success Dead Cells have announced that the title will be debuting to its full release this August.

Dead Cells is currently in Early Access, but sometime during August it has been announced the title will be released fully. Motion Twin and Merge Games are partnering up to provide players will a physical copy of the game for both the PS4 and the Nintendo Switch.

Also debuting with the announcement is the "Back to the roots / Baguette" update. The update brings new items into the game, adds legendary drops and patches general needed fixes. If you are interested in the full patch notes check out the official Dead Cells website.

Deus Ex and Shadow of the Tomb Raider dev Eidos Montreal wants to experiment with new methods and technology to help power its games, including more robust online elements.

As the industry pushes towards more online-based service games, it only makes sense for developers and publishers to follow the latest trendsetters like Fortnite. While not every game dev needs not make a battle royale game, there is a long-term lucrative sustainability to be found in the live game model. As a result we've seen publishers like Ubisoft merge online content into singleplayer components in games like Assassin's Creed: Origins and more recently with Far Cry 5, and this is something Eidos Montreal would like to pursue.

"We need to try new things, experience stuff and learn," Eidos Montreal's studio head David Anfossi told GamesIndustry.biz.

BioWare is making a new Dragon Age game...but everything we've heard so far hints at a long-away release date.

With Anthem on the horizon, aka BioWare's most ambitious open-world online-connected action game to date, it should seem obvious that the dev's other IPs will fall on the back burner. On the same heel we know that Dragon Age is next in line for a new game, especially considering Mass Effect has been tagged out after the PR disaster that was ME: Andromeda. Over the course of many months BioWare has steadily teased and drip-fed info about the next Dragon Age project. Everything we've learned thus far tells us two things: Dragon Age 4 (or whatever it's called) could be a big-budget mainline sequel and it is probably in early phases of development. Just how early though? Apparently early-early.

In a recent "state of BioWare" blog post, studio head Casey Hudson said something that could mean the new Dragon Age is far down the line. Hudson's choice of words may be deliberate or vague, but if it's the former, the next Dragon Age project is basically in envisioning and designing phases.

As an online-based experience, Anthem should indeed be monetized in some form...but EA might hold off on those specific live services at launch.

The Battlefront II controversy taught EA a hard-learned lesson. As the second games titan behind Activision, you better believe EA has taken lots of notes about what not to do regarding microtransactions and the like. Fast-forwarding to this fiscal year, FY2019, and we see two big games that are prime for engagement monetization: Battlefield V and Anthem, BioWare's big new IP. We know that Anthem is an online-driven game that will most certainly be monetized with live services, but the timing is just as important as the methodology, and we could see EA taking careful steps with their massive new investment.

In many ways Anthem is EA's dream game in terms of long-term potential monetization: it's a shared-world, genre-melding, action-RPG-shooter with narrative-driven components and online play. Essentially it has all of the critical pieces needed to turn the the billion-dollar engagement wheelhouse that dominates the games industry, and EA loves engagement (after all it made $2.19 billion from live services last fiscal year). But EA also knows it can't mess this one up. Anthem has to be handled just right lest it receive the ire of the gaming world...and that's not something you want after investing untold millions into a big new IP.

Sony's big E3 2018 presser will focus on what sells PS4 consoles: games.

Like any console-maker, games are massively important to Sony's PlayStation business, especially when it comes to exclusives. At E3 2018, Sony will continue its long-standing tradition of showcasing tantalizing sizzle reels of juggernaut PS exclusive titles: the company announced its E3 press conference will revolve around four major headliners including Death Stranding, The Last of Us II, Marvel's Spider-Man, and Ghost of Tsushima.

I'm predicting that we should get a concrete release date for Death Stranding at the event, or at the very least a "2019" release window. We already know the game will launch "before the 2020 Olympics," and Kojima has said progress on Death Stranding is going quite well.

Following the recent Walmart Canada leak, Bethesda teases what certainly has to be RAGE 2.

id Software's next big game appears to be RAGE 2, and should be highlighted during Bethesda's big E3 2018 showcase in June. But the publisher's Twitter account strongly hints the post-apocalyptic shooter sequel could be revealed this month--on May 14th to be exact. Bethesda's Twitter has been ramping up with not-so-subtle teases and at the time of writing has five pictures that progressively hint at RAGE 2's presence.

What's most interesting about the images is that they show areas around the world, which could indicate a global cross-continent experience. The first image is of Big Ben, and another image shows a Tokyo street. This could indicate RAGE 2 will have an online live service component of some sort with more widespread and dynamic multiplayer action, possibly both drop-in/drop-out online co-op and/or competitive play. In a sense there's a very real possibility RAGE 2 could mirror Borderlands in terms of play modes.

BioWare has revealed in a blogpost that the company is currently looking to the future for what games they will be producing, in the post it was revealed that there is unannounced projects in the works.

Casey Hudson, BioWare exec explains in a blogpost that BioWare has "teams envisioning future BioWare games, and they're designing approaches that are different from Anthem-including one that's very Dragon Age." This could suggest one of two things, either BioWare is creating another Dragon Age game and this is a clue, or BioWare has a completely new title in the works that shares similar gameplay aspects.

Hudson also details the upcoming Anthem, he explains that BioWare's main goal when creating a game is that the players should feel as if they are the center of the story. Even though Anthem is a multiplayer title BioWare still chooses to respectfully stand by this rule, Hudson says "In a BioWare game, you should feel like the story is about you. You create your own character, you decide what happens next, and you become the hero. I think the reason people are concerned about whether these things are possible in a multiplayer game is because it just hasn't been solved well before."

The success of Monster Hunter World caused many Nintendo Switch fans to want the game to debut on their handheld console, Capcom has put those requests to the side for now and have decided to bring Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate to the Nintendo Switch next month.

Nintendo Switch players that decide to pick up this title will be able to enjoy the slaying of monsters with up to three friends over local and online multiplayer simultaneously. A side note for players that previously owned Monster Hunter Generations, there is an option to transfer your save data to the Nintendo Switch version, if you choose to.

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate will be releasing on the Nintendo Switch on August 28, for further information regarding Capcom's upcoming title check out the official Monster Hunter website here.

Valve has changed the game up with their new Steam Link app that is on the way, the app will have the capabilities of streaming Steam Library games to both iOS and Andriod devices.

Valve has announced in their news section that two new apps will be released, the Steam Link app and the Steam Video app, the goal of these apps are to "extend Steam's suite of services and accessibility."

Users that download the Steam Link app will be able to access their entire Steam Library of games on their "Android (phone, tablet, TV) and iOS-based (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV) devices while connected via 5GHz network or wired Ethernet to a host system (Mac or PC), with Android access initially offered in beta."

As every Nintendo Switch owner patiently waits for the new Super Smash Bros, a leak for the upcoming titles game engine has surfaced, strangely enough the leak comes from a former Bandai developer.

There is very little confirmed knowledge for the new Super Smash Bros, so far we know Masahiro Sakurai is working on the project and that the title is planned for release sometime this year. Former Bandai Namco developer, Tiago Sonobe has leaked information about the games engine, according to the tweet which has now been removed, the engine for the new Super Smash Bros was actually created by Sonobe and not Nintendo.

After this post was made both the post and the account has been deleted. Nintendo and Bandai are yet to give an official statement about this matter so do take this information with a grain of salt for the time being. Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo Switch will be released sometime this year.