Gaming News - Page 100

After decades of action games, Hideki Kamiya is leaving PlatinumGames.

Hideki Kamiya is a unique figure in the video games industry. Kamiya has gained a following and notoriety for his--for lack of a better term--"salty" nature, but now the developer shares a heartfelt message.

It turns out that the famed Bayonetta series director is leaving PlatinumGames after 23 years with the Japanese games studio. Kamiya says that he will continue making games, but has not revealed exactly where he will go after Platinum. It's possible that NetEase or another publisher has snagged Kamiya to help fulfill plans for worldwide expansion.

UPDATE: CD Projekt has clarified that the 450 million PLN budget was for all of Cyberpunk 2077's development, and not just the expansion and the next-gen versions of the game.

CD Projekt Group management gives eye-opening updates on Cyberpunk 2077's post-release development budgets, confirms high price tag for both Phantom Liberty and new-gen versions of the game.

Games are extremely expensive to develop. They're so expensive that most AAA publishers are clawing back as much savings as possible through drastic employee reductions and outright cancellations. Now CD Projekt gives us an idea of how much money they've spent on Cyberpunk 2077's continued development.

Cyberpunk 2077 has sold 25 million copies since launching in 2020, CD Projekt RED today confirmed.

It looks like CD Projekt's redemption arc with Cyberpunk is finally complete. The release of Phantom Liberty and punctuates years of controversy, tumult, and an impressive turnaround with the sci-fi RPG. The expansion comes alongside the latest major update for Cyberpunk 2077--the ambitious Update 2.01--and essentially sunsets the game as CD Projekt moves on to other games (a new Cyberpunk sequel and numerous Witcher games).

In today's investor day presentation, CD Projekt Group management highlighted their operational performance. This includes updates on game sales. The company says that Cyberpunk 2077 has now sold 25 million+ copies worldwide across all consoles and PC. Another huge update: CD Projekt's total game sales have now broken 100 million, meaning that the Witcher trilogy has sold at least 75 million copies (the Witcher update isn't new--CD Projekt divulged this info a bit ago).

NVIDIA has announced a raft of games that'll be brought into the GeForce Now streaming fold during October.

There'll be 60 new games debuting on the streaming platform throughout this month, with 29 coming this week.

Those 29 are spearheaded by Assassin's Creed Mirage, the big-name release that arrived today.

Rumors surrounding the upcoming launch of the still-to-be-announced Nintendo Switch 2 (if it ends up benign called that) have been ramping up in recent weeks. According to multiple sources, the new console was shown to developers at Gamescom in September, with demos showcasing 4K visuals thanks to new NVIDIA DLSS-powered hardware. And with that, several insiders and industry analysts are predicting a second-half of 2024 launch for the Switch 2.

Where does this leave the current Nintendo Switch? According to a new interview with Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa over at the Japanese publication Nikkei (translated via VGC), it's business as usual for the current Switch. For the current fiscal year ending March 2024, the company will focus primarily on the Switch, with support and game releases continuing to the next financial year ending March 2025.

"We are still working on software for the Switch for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025," Furukawa said in the interview. "In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, we hope to sustain the momentum of Zelda and the [Super Mario Bros] movie, with a focus on the holiday sales season. As for hardware, we will maximize not only new demand for the hardware but also for those buying second consoles and replacements."

Diablo IV's second season, the Season of Blood, is set to kick off on October 17 and is set to be alongside the massive Patch 1.2.0. Outside of details on Class and balance changes and new item details, Blizzard has lifted the lid on a big chunk of the new content coming with Season of Blood, including some big updates to the endgame.

With each new Diablo IV season bringing a character wipe (meaning you need to start leveling up with no access to existing items, some recent complaints about the game have centered on how grindy the late-game leveling feels and how there's not much variety to the endgame outside of running dungeons and picking up the same gear.

Well, Season of Blood is bringing new and returning 5 Endgame bosses and the Boss ladder, which will allow players to target farm Uniques and Uber Uniques with a higher drop rate at these boss battles. Blizzard notes that Legion Events and World Bosses will frequently spawn alongside other "endgame improvements."

When you think about playing a Blizzard title on PC, whether that's World of Warcraft or even something like the original StarCraft - you think of Battle.net, the developer's PC launcher and online service that it has been running ever since gamers first went online to matchmake in Diablo II.

And with the long-awaited release of Diablo IV this year, its PC release was naturally on Battle.net. However, in a surprising (and very cool) move, the game is officially coming to Steam on October 17, coinciding with the release of the game's second season, the 'Season of Blood.' And yes, this means Steam Achievements for the game are coming, and the option to invite Steam friends to play.

Blizzard notes that it's all about opening up the game to a wider audience, and with seamless cross-play and cross-progression, Diablo IV is playable on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. As with the game's console versions, those who purchase the game on Steam will need to link their account to an existing or new Battle.net account to enable the cross-play features.

Publishers and developers are using Xbox Game Pass subscriptions to help catalyze growth of newer monetization methods, signalling another disruptive shift across gaming.

Xbox Game Pass is kind of like a river of revenue, and like a major river, there's all sorts of smaller tributaries and streams that feed into the flow. The main draw of Game Pass is being able to access hundreds of games for a flat fee, but it's the myriad of smaller synergistic monetization paths that help turn the river's flow from a meandering waterway into white water rapids.

The temporary-access, all-you-can-play model behind Game Pass gives way to other avenues, two of which are being leveraged to what appears to be great success. These include early access and incredibly attractive pricing discounts.

A new hotfix has been applied to Baldur's Gate 3, the eighth one to be issued for the RPG (with some major patches in-between, too), and it has some important fixes - as well as a rather more off-the-wall tweak.

There are some cures for crashing here, including the resolution of a multiplayer crash that happens after listening to a dialogue following an active roll. The game could also fall over when re-assigning characters in split-screen play, and that issue has been cured.

Another important one is that Larian has fixed a problem which was causing saved games to be invalid - nasty indeed.

September marked the tenth anniversary of Grand Theft Auto V, and even though the game (specifically Grand Theft Auto Online) continues to be extremely popular, selling over 185 million copies - fans are clamoring for that official Grand Theft Auto VI reveal.

Developer Rockstar Games has acknowledged that it is working on the highly anticipated sequel. However, release windows, setting, and how it will look and feel - are all a mystery outside of leaks, suggesting a return to Vice City.

Rockstar is known for placing cryptic hints and teasers in games and other places, and some fans are convinced that Grand Theft Auto Online's Moon Festival event holds the key to when we'll officially get that big GTA 6 unveiling. Per the event's naming, the clues are about the moon and its connection to the Waning Gibbous phase.