Gaming News - Page 11

The PlayStation 5 is officially one year old...but most next-gen console owners aren't playing Sony's first-party games.

Today Sony celebrated the PS5's first anniversary with a look back over the last 12 months. The PlayStation Blog post was mostly a fluff piece touting various milestones like the release of games, announcements of products that won't be here for a while, and Jim Ryan saying that "we're just getting started" while somehow also saying the next-gen PSVR headset has been revealed (it hasn't).

The most interesting part of the article was a top 10 of the most-played PS5 games. It turns out Fortnite is leagues more popular than any first-party Sony game, which makes sense considering its free-to-play...but more premium games like Cold War, FIFA, NBA 2K, and even Assassin's Creed Valhalla beat out Sony's first-party games like Miles Morales and Demon's Souls.

The new Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition has been taken offline with the Rockstar Launcher on PC being in "maintenance" for the last 12 hours...right after dataminers discover interesting things in the source code.

Dataminers have uncovered a goldmine of content nestled in the new GTA trilogy remaster's source code. Apparently the original music were actually included in the PC install of San Andreas in OGG-VORBIS audio format, but were switched off in the consumer build. The music is there but gamers simply can't play the songs in-game. Music licenses are costly and if misused can land companies in court so it's likely this is the main reason the PC version of the trilogy remains offline.

There's also snippets of developer communication in the code. It's not uncommon for game developers to leave notes peppered through the source code to help unravel the rat's nest of garbled language that can ensue while making a game. Some of these notes are pretty hilarious and could have been made by the remastered trilogy's new developer, Grove Street Games (formerly War Drum Studios who had helped Rockstar make mobile ports and re-releases of GTA titles).

Activision-Blizzard is no longer the most valuable video games publisher in the United States--someone else has taken the top spot.

Following a huge spike in shares, Roblox is now worth more than Activision-Blizzard. Both heavy-hitting gaming titans have market capitalizations in excess of $50 billion, but Roblox has leaped ahead of Activision by quite a bit.

Strong earnings caused Roblox shares have jumped by nearly 20% over the past five days, pushing shares to $98.12. Roblox currently has 521.57 million shares outstanding (or total shares on the market) and a market cap of $57.32 billion.

Halo Infinite's campaign will make Halo 5 players very happy...especially everyone who hated the Forerunners and Prometheans. Plus there's a ton of new changes to literally make the game into a never-ending Halo.

343i is taking fan feedback pretty seriously. That's why Halo Infinite will have absolutely no Promethean enemies (except for maybe those flying imp guys). Another big change is how Halo Infinite is basically an RPG, complete with level ups, weapon upgrades, and new armor.

New Game Informer content confirms how some of these systems will work. Halo Infinite is actually a lot like Far Cry with new Forward Operating Bases that can be captured by UNSC forces.

Bethesda's current focus goes like this: Starfield -> The Elder Scrolls VI -> Fallout 5

It's going to be a long, long time before another mainline Fallout releases from Bethesda Game Studios. In fact, the studio has about one page of plans for the sequel. Right now Bethesda is all-in on Starfield, their first major new IP in the last 25 years that will not only flex a brand new next-gen games engine, but establish data, content, and features that will power all future games from the studio.

Then after Starfield the team is going right into The Elder Scrolls VI. But what about Fallout? There's not much to say about a Fallout 5.

Microsoft is testing a new Xbox app update that allows custom folder installs and access to local files--two things that will make it easier to mod games.

With its custom folder installs and intuitive UI, Steam is traditionally the best storefront to buy games from if you want to mod them. Microsoft wants to even the odds a bit with a new Xbox PC app update.

Gamers will soon be able to choose where specific Windows Store and Game Pass games are installed on their drives, and even navigate and open local files of any game installed through Game pass on PC. The idea is giving users more access to the data that's required to mod and change up gameplay features--including heavily-modded games like Fallout 4 or Skyrim Special Edition.

SEGA could be the next major publisher to get into the NFT craze.

In the next five years, SEGA is prepared to spend a whopping 100 billion yen (roughly $880 million) on games development, acquisitions, and possibly new emerging tech like NFTs and blockchain.

The news was outlined in a recent Q&A session with investors: "In addition, we are considering M&A and investment in new fields such as NFT."

The Blue Blur has hit a new sales milestone since originally appearing on the scene in 1991.

After 30 years, the Sonic franchise has amassed over 1.38 billion combined game sales and downloads across premium and free-to-play games. SEGA confirmed the huge number in its latest FY2021 annual report, which catalogs sales across all of its major franchises, IPs, and game series. Sonic actually managed to grow by 240 million combined sales and downloads since last year.

The Sonic franchise remains alive and well for SEGA. The company just registered Sonic Frontiers, and more recent titles like Sonic Mania have sold tremendously on all platforms. The report also details other series like Yakuza, Virtua Fighter, Football Manager, and Total War. SEGA's biggest franchises (Sonic, Yakuza, PSO, Persona, Total War) account for roughly 40% of its yearly earnings.

PS5 scarcity won't be alleviated any time soon. Sony has cut its PS5 shipment target due to worldwide component shortages.

Sony has cut 1 million units from its PS5 production target, sources tell Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki. Sony now expects to have 15 million PS5 consoles available for shipment by March 2022, and now that number has dropped to 14 million. Like Nintendo, Microsoft, and other consumer technology manufacturers, Sony is having trouble securing critical semiconductors, chips, and components required for the PS5 console.

Supply constraints may also bite into Sony's big plans for 2022, where it plans to make nearly 23 million PlayStation 5 consoles ready for shipment. This is the largest salvo of PlayStation consoles that Sony has ever prepared in the history of the brand.

Battlefield 2042 pre-loading is kicking off worldwide right now, but once you've got it downloaded and installed onto your PC or console, what time does it unlock? Let's find out.

If you've pre-ordered the Gold Edition or Ultimate Edition version of Battlefield 2042, then you'll get Early Access into the game and can enjoy it on November 12. The full release is a week later on November 19, so anyone that ordered the Gold or Ultimate Edition of the game can pre-load Battlefield 2042.

I've just finished pre-loading Battlefield 2042 Ultimate Edition on Steam, but we're still over 24 hours away from the PC Early Access launch at the time of writing. It all kicks off on November 12 @ 00:00 PST. Not only that, but there's also a 10-hour trial of Battlefield 2042 if you're an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or EA Play subscriber.