Gaming - Page 14

Nintendo has recently released its earnings report where it revealed how many Pokemon game copies have sold on the Nintendo Switch throughout its lifespan.

The Nintendo Switch was released in 2017 and has become one of Nintendo's most successful consoles ever, selling more than 140 million units and becoming Nintendo's second best-selling console ever, right behind the Nintendo DS at 154 million units. According to Nintendo's recent financial results, the Pokemon franchise unit sales just on the Nintendo Switch have reached 99 million, which is an aggregated figure of all Pokemon game unit sales on the Nintendo Switch up until September 30.

For those wondering, the Nintendo Switch has seen a slew of Pokemon game releases, such as Pokken Tournament, Pokemon Quest, Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Let's Go Eevee, Pokemon Sword and Shield, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Nintendo is slated to release one more Pokemon game on the Nintendo Switch before it presumably moves to its next-generation platform. That last Pokemon game is called "Pokemon Z-A," and content from it was recently leaked when Game Freak was infiltrated.

Researchers have injected an artificial intelligence program into an instance of Minecraft and left it to its own devices. The AI is now teaching itself how to survive.

The AI was developed by the company SingularityNET and the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI Alliance). The AI has been named Autonomous Intelligent Reinforcement Inferred Symbolism, or AIRIS for short. According to reports the AI essentially started from nothing within Minecraft and over time slowly taught itself how to play using nothing but the game's feedback loop.

The researchers explained how the AI is able to play Minecraft. The AI is given two types of environmental inputs and a list of actions it can perform. The first input is a 5 x 5 x 5 3D grid that blocks names that surround the AI agent. The researchers say this is how the AI is able to "see" the world around it. The second input is the current coordinates of the AI agent. The list of actions the AI has available to it is movement-based, which it can perform in one of eight directions - the four directions (forward, back, left, and right) and then diagonally for a total of 16 "actions".

On the heels of Dragon Age: The Veilguard being unlikely to receive its own DLC, we have now learned that the original Dragon Ages aren't likely to be getting remasters.

The classic Dragon Age titles such as Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 were built on outdated BioWare engines that was a custom version of the Eclipse engine. Reports indicate the Eclipse engine was upgraded version of the engine used to build other titles such as Knights of the Old Republic, and due to restriants with that engine its unlikely the old Dragon Age games will receive remasters.

The news was confirmed by Creative Director John Epler, who said in a recent interview with Rolling Stone that there are only "20 people left at BioWare who's actually used Eclipse," and due to the technological restraints of the engine, along with the lack of expertise on how to use it, it's unlikely Origins and Dragon Age 2 will ever receive remasters. However, Epler doesn't want to rule out the possibility altogether.

The AYANEO 3 is AYANEO's new flagship PC gaming handheld. It will be available in multiple display and APU variants, with a high refresh-rate 7-inch LCD or 7-inch OLED display and either the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U or the powerful AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor.

The AI 9 HX 370, or Strix Point APU, includes the latest RDNA 3.5 graphics with the Radeon 890M integrated GPU, so this variant is set to become one of the most powerful portable gaming handhelds on the market. The AI 9 HX 370 also features AI hardware, and with the AYANEO 3 set to be a Windows-based gaming handheld, owners with this APU will have access to a range of Copilot+ features.

Outside of the display and chip stuff, the AYANEO 3's physical design is incredibly stylish. It features a new ergonomic back button design and a trigger lock feature typically seen in pro controllers. It is available in black or white and has new front-facing speakers for 'immersive audio,' with more features and customization options still to be announced.

After bringing several first-party PlayStation games to PC, Sony's decision to add a PlayStation Network login requirement to its releases this year has not been popular with PC gamers. Even single-player titles like God of War Ragnarol and the recent Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered require PC players to link and sign in to the PlayStation Network or PSN.

One of the main criticisms surrounding this decision is that the PlayStation Network isn't available in fewer countries than Valve's Steam, so forcing a PSN sign-in has effectively prevented some gamers from playing PlayStation games on PC. According to Sony's president, COO, and CFO, Hiroki Totoki, the PlayStation Network account requirement is about keeping gamers safe.

In a recent investor call, Sony's president acknowledged that the decision to force PC gamers into the PlayStation Network would "invite pushback," but it had to be done for safety.

STALKER 2 has officially gone gold, with developer GSC Game World proudly announcing the news on X. The term 'gone gold' is more old school from the 90s and 2000s where the developer finishes the master copy of the game, and it gets sent off for the mass production of physical discs.

It has been over 17 years since the release of the original STALKER back in 2007, with the last entry in the franchise being STALKER: Call of Pripyat in 2009. GSC Game World's first proper attempt at developing STALKER 2 started immediately, with the game announced in August 2010 for a tentative release in 2012... well, 12 years later, STALKER 2 has gone gold.

The Ukranian developer was dissolved in December 2011, which saw STALKER 2 cancelled. However, Evgeniy Grygorovych, the brother of GSC Game World's original founder Sergiy Grygorovych, resurrected the studio from the dead in late 2014. STALKER 2 was announced in May 2018, with a release window of 2021... and 3 years later, STALKER 2 has gone gold.

NVIDIA has made some big changes to GeForce Now and the middle plan most gamers will be using - and while there are upgrades here, a choice to limit playing time has caused a storm of controversy.

Team Green has changed the Priority subscription - which is the middle ground between the premium Ultimate subscription, and the Free tier - to rename it as the Performance plan to reflect that it now supports up to 1440p resolution. Previously, these members were streaming at 1080p, and also ultra-wide is now supported, too.

On top of this, those using the new Performance membership will be able to save in-game graphics settings in the cloud, so those options will be applied permanently to avoid messing about and having to change them all the time.

As part of its latest Quarterly Earnings report for Q2 2025, Take-Two Interactive has confirmed that the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI will launch in Fall 2025. This means the game will debut on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles between September, October, and November 2025.

With the GTA franchise now selling over 435 million units, with 205 million of that attributed to Gran Theft Auto V, there's no doubt that GTA 6 is easily one of the most anticipated games of all time. Based on the hype, it is simply a question of 'how big will it be,' especially when you factor in that the PC version probably won't arrive until late 2026 at the earliest.

Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two Interactive, confirmed the release window and stated that Borderlands 4 and Mafia: The Old Country will be out before March 2026. There's also a bit of a BioShock tease with the franchise highlighted as one of 2K's "industry-leading" IPs.

A new patent (spotted by Tech4Gamers) from Sony outlines a new controller design with a dedicated button that will allow PlayStation gamers to 'rewind' gameplay. The patent explains that PlayStation gamers who press the button will be presented with a gameplay timeline, which they can scroll, bookmark, relive, and share.

Sony notes that it could be used as an information tool for gamers who want to relisten to conversations in an RPG again for hints or figure out where that place was where they found an item or discovered something new. Where it gets wild is that the rewind feature could even let you replay and relive your favorite moments, boss battles, and encounters.

As a new patent, the wording is very clinical and matter-of-fact, with Sony confirming that "accessing recent gameplay while the player is playing a video game is difficult" and technically challenging. So, the assumption is that this tech will probably find its way into the PlayStation 6 and the next iteration of the DualSense controller.

Have you seen the new Unreal Engine 5-powered game Empire of the Ants from Microids and developer Tower Five? It's a real-time 'strategic' experience that takes place at the microscopic level with some truly stunning ant-sized wildlife visuals. Today, it's out for PC via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store, with support for DLSS 3 Frame Generation, Super Resolution, and Reflex.

Another game out this week is Frontier Developments' Planet Coaster 2, the sequel to the popular theme park sim that lets you build and customize roller coasters while setting prices for things like corn dogs and giant cups of soda. It's another new PC game with DLSS 3 Frame Generation, Super Resolution, and Reflex support - with the addition of DLAA, the AI-based anti-aliasing mode for boosting image quality.

Although the game has received positive reviews from the press, the feedback from the PC community is mixed. Some claim that the UI and other elements like park density have been simplified or cut back due to the game launching simultaneously on consoles. If you're interested in picking it up, it's worth keeping that in mind.