Gaming - Page 1134

The Sony PlayStation 4 will see its sales dominance over the Microsoft Xbox One continue, with the Japanese console outselling its American counterpart 40 percent by 2019, according to Strategy Analytics.

Through the first 14 months, the PS4 has sold 18.5 million units - and is on track to mimic the same success the PlayStation 2 had years ago. Strategy Analytics believes the PS4 will sell 80 million consoles by 2019, a dominant lead over the estimated 57 million units for the Xbox One.

The PS4 dominated the Xbox One for most of 2014, and has recaptured its lead in 2015 - and predicting extended dominance wouldn't be overly surprising. Even if Microsoft is unable to catch up to the PS4, there is still plenty of room for both consoles to rack up impressive sales figures.

Project Cars has been delayed again, with Slightly Mad Studios announcing that it will be missing its March 17 release for an April 2 release on Steam for the PC, and April 7 on the PS4 and Xbox One. In Europe however, it will release on all three platforms on April 2.

The simulation racer was meant to launch last November, but it was pushed out to March 17, and now to April 2. The latest delay to the game has come from "final adjustments in the game that are required to provide fans with the best gaming experience they can have" according to publisher Bandai Namco.

Slightly Mad Studios' boss, Ian Bell, explains: "Moving the release date was not an easy decision to make, as we know our fans are eager to get their hands-on on Project Cars. But we know that these extra days will allow us to provide the best game experience that our fans deserve. We assure you the wait will be worth it when the game does arrive early April".

Nintendo left some gamers confused when it confirmed it would release the New Nintendo 3DS XL console but not the smaller New Nintendo 3DS in the United States. However, the marketing decision was made in an effort to avoid confusing US gamers regarding the previous 3DS models and New Nintendo 3DS console unit.

"We're a different market," said Damon Baker, Senior Manager of Nintendo of America, in a statement to Nintendo Life. "And now we have clear differentiation between those three systems. Before, there was a very limited difference between the 3DS and 3DS XL: other than size. It was the same resolution, same functionality... now, there's the 2DS, 3DS, and New 3DS XL, all of which have their own functionality and features."

The hardware specifications are the same, but US gamers lose out on custom faceplates available for the New Nintendo 3DS unit. The New Nintendo 3DS can be found in Japan and Europe, and it's possible a US release could happen, but the company didn't confirm future plans.

In a surprising move from Microsoft, all Xbox One consoles will be turned into developer kits later this year, according to The Verge. The Verge's sources have said that Microsoft will tell the world more about it at its developer-focused Build conference in April.

Back in July of last year, then-Corporate Vice President of Xbox, Marc Whitten said "every Xbox One can be used for development". But with the expensive price of development kit units, it stopped smaller developers from making content for the Xbox consoles. We should also expect an expansion of Xbox One app development, which is limited to select developers at the moment.

A new SDK will be shown off in May, something that will provider developers with the ability to create apps as early as the summer.

Rise of the Tomb Raider will have a totally different look to the reboot of Tomb Raider from Crystal Dynamics, with Tomb Raider's previous Art Director taking the position of Game Director for its sequel.

Brian Horton, the new Game Director for Rise of the Tomb Raider has reiterated the importance of a new look to the environment, where in Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara Croft will venture out to Russia. Croft will be exploring a lost city, looking for answers about the immortal soul, with the new environment including various new challenges, and enemies.

Horton talked with Game Informer, where he said: "The concept art pieces that we do, generally have to accomplish a couple different things. They have to provide a sense of composition. You look at it and you go, 'Oh, I know where I am supposed to be looking. That is really interesting. I can't wait to get over there.' You create that interest through lighting, through complimentary color schemes, things you can say like I am in a very cold place or there is a warm light, or vice versa".

Allowing users to play Android games, run Android apps, browse the internet and watch Netflix,the ZRRO Box sets out to be a new-age console, telling Razer that "We'll Take It From Here" - as seen in their release headline.

Currently on Kickstarter, this project has raised $35,392 in only a few days and is looking at a $200,000 total target with 41 more days to reach it.

Set out to turn your TV into somewhat of a "huge tablet," the ZRRO Pad will track and mirror your fingers' 3D position onto your TV, meaning you hover your finger over the pad to move your position and press the screen itself to select. You can also pinch, swipe and drag - just like other portable devices.

With Skylanders and Disney Infinity figures continuing to move impressive numbers for gaming systems worldwide, late last year Nintendo got into the market with their range of Amiibo figures for the WiiU and New 3DS systems, releasing a total of 29 NFC equipped Amiibo figures, with a further two waves to come in the next few weeks. With product shortages and some of the rarer figures commanding big prices on eBay, it's no shock that Nintendo completely underestimated the lines popularity, but today's earnings call reveals how strong that popularity is.

Nintendo announced that they've sold through 5.7 million Amiibo figures worldwide, with 'The Legend of Zelda' character Link proving the most popular in all listed countries - except in Australia where Mario topped the chart. Our friends at Vooks are the first to translate the sales charts here.

Following in the footsteps of the US, Malaysia has now officially recognized eSports as a professional sport - listing it under the Sports Commission of Malaysia.

Reportedly kicked off due to their local team Orange eSports placing highly in Valve's 2013 International Dota2 tournament, eSports began receiving a lot of publicity throughout the nation. This push was majorly supported by Malaysia's Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin directly - eventually ending up with the ruling as seen today.

It hasn't always been smooth sailing, with Arrow Gaming being accused and found guilty of match fixing - but this controversy has further pushed the government towards this ruling, meaning that they can now directly control any issues that may occur in the future.

Have you had a chance to get your own Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm (Heroes) beta yet? Set out to be a fast-paced and action packed MOBA style game, Blizzard have made it publicly known that they're interested in turning this title into another large eSport offering.

With plenty of different Blizzard characters on offer including your favorite Warcraft and StarCraft personalities, they've set out to make this game somewhat of a LoL style environment (jump in and play, or practice and go pro) with a twist. There's a bunch of side objectives you can complete in every game alongside each match shortened to around 20 minutes.

This game also does away with singular hero leveling. A little confusing at first, all heroes on the same team will level at the same rate no matter how many kills or deaths one player may have. This helps your team progress together and provide some more linear game-play. There's no earth-shattering ultimate abilities like in Dota2, however the fast-paced nature and quick games make for an enjoyable experience.

Halo has had a massive roller-coaster ride in the past few years in regards to eSports. Starting off as the building block for large events like MLG and ACL Pro, it had majorly fallen off in recent times, however 343 Industries wants to change this. In recent news, the Halo Championship Series Season 1 finals prize pool has seen a massive improvement from $50,000 to $100,000 - thanks to the developer.

Taken from Halo's official website, media director Che Chou has commented that this increase is thanks to gamer feedback and advice, stating: "One of the most important pieces of feedback we've heard is that all players - from amateur to top teams - simply want more opportunities to compete and earn more money in the HCS."

This prize pool increase will see the following payment structure take place:

Did you ever play Bridge Builder? I know I spend many hours of precious High School learning time teetering away, trying to build the best bridge on a budget to somehow transport my cargo across the raging chasm I was provided with.

Well we're now in the 'new age', with physics games being more than a few colors and lines - in comes Besiege. You're given a tiny starting block and as many resources as you can poke a stick at, each level has a slightly different objective and almost all have these cute little knights and archers waiting to slice you up.

Interested? Here's more - whether you're after a more tactical approach or simply want to build something ridiculous and massive like my aptly named 'Cannon Fire' as seen below, Besiege will present you with various problem solving tasks that you must complete. Each component in your arsenal can be tweaked and tinkered with, including different turning speeds, strengths and firing orders - further adding to the depth of this indie title.

Nintendo won't throw in the towel on its Wii U gaming console, hoping that it can sell more units in the United States and European markets.

"I believe the Wii U business still has considerable room for growth, as a number of software titles that are compatible with the console are slated for release in 2015," said Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, in a statement published by Nikkei.

Iwata believes many Japanese consumers enjoy using smartphones and Nintendo 3DS for mobile gaming, while gamers in the western world still prefer to have devices connected to their TVs. However, some critics believe Nintendo is fooling itself into thinking there is hope for the Wii U - and should consider preparing a next-generation console to compete against the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4.

Speaking at the D.I.C.E Summit in Las Vegas, EA chief creative officer Richard Hilleman stated that games are "too hard to learn," explaining that basic titles which will take users hours to learn to operate are not optimal.

He added that "our games are actually still too hard to learn. The average player probably spends two hours to learn how to play the most basic game. And asking for two hours of somebody's time--most of our customers, between their normal family lives...to find two contiguous hours to concentrate on learning how to play a video game is a big ask."

Shared on Hot Hardware, many users are outraged by these statements coming from one of EA's most senior developers. Besides the PC Master race comments, many users claim that their fun gaming experience comes from mastering a game and learning all of the tips and tricks involved. Other users agree, with them using games as relaxation - wanting something they can easily jump in and start playing without learning involved.

$12 is all it takes to get your own copies of 12 classic Star Wars games through the Humble Bundle - including smash hits like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Star Wars Republic Commando and Star Wars Battlefront II.

Donating to charity has never been cooler, thanks to the release and upkeep of the Humble Bundle. This project allows you to give a small donation to charities, the developers and Humble Bundle themselves - spreading the love around to all. We've seen plenty of bundles come and go, ranging from large-scale developer offerings to small indie brands with basically every bundle guaranteed to offer you 20+ hours of game play enjoyment.

As with all bundles, you can spend what you wish - however the more your donation is, the more games are unlocked for you to play. The smallest of donations will see you get the three basic titles of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy and Star Wars: Dark Forces. Expanding this to above the average donation amount of $11.54 will see you open the doors to a further six games - with finally a $12 or higher donation seeing you unlock the full 12 titles.

In less than two months, Ubisoft has sold more than 7 million units of Far Cry 4, and it doesn't look like the game franchise is going to end just yet.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot didn't confirm a new Far Cry video game, but indicated Far Cry 4 may not be the last title for gamers. "The Far Cry franchise is here for the long-run and is a stronger contender in the shooter genre," Guillemot said during a recent earnings call.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft released the Overrun Far Cry 4 DLC for PC and console gamers, providing new maps, a new vehicle, and a new PvP mode. The game publisher seems focused on releasing updates for Far Cry 4 and will keep any rumblings of a new title under wraps for the time being.

We know that NVIDIA will be hosting a special "Made to Game" event on March 3 during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2015, but the company hasn't said anything outside of the new product will "redefine the future of gaming". No details, not even so much of a tease of what it could be.

We know that it has been five years in the making, but what we're going to report is that it will be an Android-powered console. We're sure that it will be powered by a Tegra processor, most likely the Tegra X1 that NVIDIA unveiled at CES 2015 earlier this year. It would make sense, as NVIDIA has been pushing in that direction with its Shield line for a while now.

It wasn't long ago that we reported on a Tegra X1-powered Shield Tablet, but maybe it is the new Android-powered console that we here at TweakTown think it will arrive as? We have a Shield Tablet that would be close to an Android-powered console as it is, the Shield Controller which could connect to it, but a new 4K-capable gaming box that could bake down to 1080p 60FPS? Yes, please. This is all speculation until NVIDIA unveils the new device on March 3, which isn't too far away from now.

I'm sure you remember Asteroids, but I bet you didn't see this one coming. Atari has just teased a multiplayer-focused survival game for the PC through Steam's Early Access program, called Asteroids: Outpost.

Atari describes the game as: "Set in the distant future, Asteroids: Outpost thrusts players into a harsh deep space environment. While on a massive, unforgiving asteroid, players face the challenges of exploring the asteroid, collecting resources, scavenging for ore, crafting equipment, and expanding their territory as they build highly customized bases - all while forming alliances and fighting off other players in challenging multiplayer gameplay. Recurring showers of smaller asteroids represent a source of wealth and a threat as players shoot down these incoming projectiles to defend their claims and harvest their components".

The developer behind the STALKER franchise, GSC Game World, has begun teasing its upcoming game. There's nothing known about it just yet, but the developer has also come out swinging for its STALKER franchise, saying that it will defend it from other developers.

Back in February 2011, GSC Game World terminated any and all work on its next STALKER game, closing the company down. The core team behind STALKER went off to Vostok Games, but Public Relations Director for GSC Game World, Valentine Yeltyshev has said that he stepped away from the games industry entirely, moving into a career on the motorcross circuit. He's now back with GSC Game World, but he's had quite a few years.

Yeltyshev has said that GSC Game World is back, and that they have an eye on West Games' STALKER: Apocalypse. STALKER: Apocalypse hit Kickstarter, but disappeared pretty quickly, taking to a service called Wfunder. Wfunder is a crowdfunding platform that is similar to Kickstarter, but isn't based in the US. Yeltyshev has dismissed West Games, saying that the team doesn't have what it takes, or the permission, to make a STALKER game. He said: "We started to develop a Flash-based, a web-based STALKER before 2011. An isometric, open-world STALKER. And that was these guys [that make up the core of West Games]. When we realized that this project would not be as good as we wanted it to be, we closed the project".

How many times has your mother in the past told you to get off the computer and "do something productive" with your time. Ignoring her, for me, landed me a job in eSports, ignoring her for 15 year old Syed "Suma1L" Hassan, meant he carried his team to victory in the Dota 2 Asian Championships - playing a massive hand in his team walking away with the $1,284,158 first place prize incentive.

Not only was this Suma1L's first attendance at a massive major live event, he more than paid for his own worth - as you can see in the video above. On top of his amazing Tinker playing ability, he helped carry his team to victory when playing Storm Spirit. In the final game of the grans final series, although dieing four times quickly at the beginning, he managed to use his incredible placement, micro and forward-thinking techniques to run rings around his opponents.

So I'll just let that sink in for you all - a 15 year old has just walked away with $250,000 in prize money after beating the best Dota2 teams in the world. It gets even better - Suma1L and his new-found teammate Aui_2000 were both stand-ins for this event. Although not 'officially' on the Evil Geniuses Roster, they were called upon to play due to the departure of Artour "Arteezy" Babaev and Ludwig "zai" Wahlberg (to Team Secret).

Titanfall 2 from Electronic Arts and Respawn could be available for the Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox one game consoles, according to recent reports. The original Titanfall game was only available for the Xbox One and PC - but releasing the sequel to the PS4, which has easily outsold the Xbox One, opens the door to a larger market of console gamers.

"Last year it was on the Xbox only; in the future, we haven't yet announced, but we'll probably have another Titanfall game," said Blake Jorgensen, CFO of Electronic Arts, speaking at the 2015 Technology, Internet & Media Conference. "It will probably be a bigger footprint than just a single platform. I think that's a huge positive for us."

Microsoft was hoping the first Titanfall to be a major blockbuster, and while it sold fairly well, many gamers were still left disappointed - and Microsoft reportedly won't open up the checkbook to make an Xbox One console exclusive again.