Gaming News - Page 1

Xbox has had a capture problem for two console generations, and Microsoft's solution isn't a great fix.

Capturing screenshots and video on Xbox is fairly straightforward. You press the button, and the console will record what happened in video or picture form. Unfortunately for gamers, the Xbox Series consoles will automatically overwrite and/or delete captured content that is stored natively on the SSD if storage runs low. The console does not notify users that this is happening; screenshots and video will just disappear.

Users had some choices to help mitigate this. The most convenient solution was to just have the console upload screenshots and content to the Xbox network. These files were safe once they were uploaded. You could even fire up the Xbox Console Companion App and download any screenshots or videos that were stored on the Xbox network.

Fortnite makes billions of dollars a year and is one of the most popular video games ever made. So why is Epic Games firing hundreds of workers due to overspending? The answer lies in Epic's multi-faceted ambitions.

Epic Games is one of the most interesting companies in the video games industry. While Epic is the maker of Unreal Engine, one of the most widely-used multimedia graphics engines on the planet, this engine doesn't define Epic's ambitions. The reality is that Epic wears many hats. It's not just an engine-maker that licenses its tools out to a sizable portion of games, films, TV shows, and even cars; Epic is also a major disruptor for video game economics and pledges to shake up the status quo.

Epic appears to follow the whims of CEO Tim Sweeney, a legendary programmer who created the Unreal Engine. Sweeney is staunchly opposed to certain games industry trends, including the business practices of Valve, Google, and Apple, the last two of which constitute a "mobile duopoly" on gaming's most lucrative billion-dollar platform. Sweeney has been vocal and consistent in his opposition of these companies, and Epic's specific business decisions have followed Sweeney's beliefs.

Cyberpunk now has its Phantom Liberty expansion - with patch 2.0 update in tow - and some benchmarking of the game has produced some surprising results in terms of a Linux distro performing much faster than Windows 11.

Okay, so upfront, we should note that this is just one test, and the conclusions we can draw are limited - but the difference is quite eye-opening, when running Nobara (a spin on Fedora) compared to Windows 11 on the exact same PC.

YouTuber Maximum Fury conducted the test runs which found that Nobara was just over 30% faster than Windows 11 at Full HD resolution (high textures).

"The largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike's history" is here, with Valve officially launching the highly anticipated successor to CS:GO, simply called Counter-Strike 2. After an extensive Limited Test or Beta period, the Source 2-powered version of the popular online shooter presents map overhauls, new dynamic smoke grenades (that behave realistically), and more.

Counter-Strike 2 was officially announced and unveiled in March 2023, and the hotly anticipated launch has been on the cards for quite some time. With the official launch coming without much warning on the first day, the game has seen close to 1.5 million peak concurrent players, with around 750,000 playing the game as I write this.

Considering the age and pedigree of Counter-Strike (even though this slaps a '2' on the end, it's not the second release or major overhaul to the game), the most immediate and noticeable change comes in the visual department. With new lighting, textures, and map detail all being upgraded without affecting the core gameplay - this is still the same old Counter-Strike, albeit much better looking.

There are big changes coming to your Xbox, with game captures set to be deleted after 90 days - and the clock starts right now.

In a blog published yesterday Jonathan Hildebrandt, Principal Group Product Manager, Xbox Experiences, confirmed that game captures stored on the Xbox network will automatically be deleted after 90 days. But don't worry, Microsoft already has a plan to make sure that you don't lose anything.

In the same blog post, it was confirmed that new changes will also allow the bulk upload of files to OneDrive or an external hard drive. Beyond that, the Xbox system can also be configured to automatically upload new captures to OneDrive to make sure that they're kept safe and sound. Making the change is pretty easy and there will be a "Tell me more" option in the Captures area of the Xbox software that will offer details on how to get started.

PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan is leaving the company in 2024, Sony has officially announced.

Today marks the end of an era for PlayStation. Sony's gaming CEO Jim Ryan will depart the company when the FY23 timeline ends on April 1, 2024. Ryan will be temporarily replaced by Sony's Hiroki Totoki, who will step in as interim CEO of the games division while the board approves a new leader for SIE. Totoki also leads as Sony Corp's president, chief operating officer, and chief financial officer.

Jim Ryan leaves behind a decades-long legacy at Sony. Having joined Sony's European games division in 1994, eventually rising to become president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe. Ryan then became deputy president at the consolidated games branch in 2018, and eventually succeeded Shawn Layden when Layden left PlayStation in 2019.

Horizon Forbidden West is coming to the PC platform, and soon enough, Sony has just revealed.

The Complete Edition of Horizon Forbidden West will pitch up next year, and we're told it'll be early 2024, too. So, we haven't got that long to wait at all for the PC port.

This is, of course, the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn, the original PlayStation game which was ported to the PC back in the summer of 2020 (three years ago, now, shockingly - has it really been that long?).

Racing sim addicts who are after a dedicated chair, but don't have the space for a full setup - and maybe not the wallet capacity either - might be impressed by a new offering from Logitech in this space.

That would be the Playseat Challenge X racing chair, which folds away to be easily stored in a cupboard somewhere.

The chassis of the racing chair is nicely lightweight at just under 12kg in total, and you can, of course, attach a steering wheel and pedals. Crucially, as part of the compact setup, those peripherals can be left attached when you fold up the Playseat Challenge X, for a good deal of added convenience.

Capcom is among the last publishers to avoid the new $70 price hike for video games, but that may change soon.

Every new console generation comes with change--updated features, tech innovations, new tools, etc. But the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S also introduced higher costs for gaming's most profitable product: Software. From the get-go, publishers like Sony Interactive Entertainment, Take-Two Interactive, Activision-Blizzard, and Electronic Arts priced their new Gen9 games at $70. It took a little while for others to catch up.

Now after years of holding out, it looks like Capcom could be the latest publisher to raise its game prices to $70. At Tokyo Game Show 2023, Capcom President Haruhiro Tsujimoto shares a sentiment that most publishers will agree with: "Game prices are too low."

Chris Metzen, the original creative director of the mega-popular World of Warcraft MMORPG, has officially returned to Blizzard Entertainment.

Today Blizzard announced some big news: Chris Metzen is back in a leadership role and will now oversee the entire Warcraft franchise. Metzen's current duty is to help shape the future of World of Warcraft as the game moves closer to its 10th anniversary.

"We are excited to share that Chris Metzen has taken on a full-time role as Executive Creative Director of the Warcraft universe. Right now, his main focus is supporting our World of Warcraft leadership in crafting the next generation of adventures," reads the announcement.