Gaming - Page 146

Copilot for Gaming has arrived in beta form in the Xbox app for mobiles, with the AI designed to provide you with hints and tips, strategies, info on games, and more besides.

Microsoft announced (as flagged by Neowin) the debut of the AI feature in the US and Australia (as well as some other regions) as part of the latest beta version of the Xbox app on Android and iPhone.

The idea is that Copilot for Gaming is a second screen experience, so you can use it on your phone without cluttering the display of the TV (or monitor) hooked up to your console (or PC).

DOOM: The Dark Ages released on May 15 and received extremely positive scores from numerous game critics and players alike, but, according to SteamDB, which tracks the number of players for titles, the game is seeing a massive decline.

There is some negative sentiment surrounding DOOM: The Dark Ages for its lack of glory kills, a prominent component of the previous game, DOOM Eternal, and the gameplay being generally easier than Eternal. However, despite these criticisms, the game has attracted extremely high scores from numerous reviewers, and now reports are surfacing following Bethesda's announcement that The Dark Ages has reached 3 million players, of those 3 million, only 1 million were actually sales, the rest were Game Pass.

According to Alinea Analytics, The Dark Ages has sold 800,000 copies, with 200,000 of those copies on PlayStation, 200,000 on Xbox, and 400,000 on Steam. The remaining players are enjoying the title on Xbox Game Pass. Notably, only Microsoft and Bethesda know the exact sales numbers for The Dark Ages, but something undeniable is happening with the Steam player base.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is confirmed to support 5.1 surround sound with headphones while in handheld mode, which wasn't available on the Switch 1.

Nintendo Switch 2 units are already out in the wild, and some people who have received them early, by unknown means, are posting videos of unboxing the console, and even the first boot up. However, PopsCulture has taken things a step further and posted a video of the entire first setup process for the new console, where he showcases what buyers will have to go through before getting into their first Switch 2-powered game, and what is available within the System Settings.

Popsculture showcased that the Nintendo Switch 2 supports 5.1 surround sound with headphones, a feature strictly locked to the docked mode of the original Nintendo Switch. This means Switch 2 buyers can snag a pair of 5.1 surround sound headphones and enjoy their games with better sound, depending on whether the game they are playing also supports 5.1 surround sound.

Nintendo's new Switch 2 gaming handheld has an NVIDIA T239 SoC inside, fabbed by Samsung on its 8N process node, and now rumor has it both Sony and AMD are eyeing off Samsung to have custom chips made for them in the coming years, signaling a possible shift away from TSMC (pretty much making all high-end chips).

NVIDIA made the semi-custom T239 processor for the Nintendo Switch 2 which the Japanese company handed Samsung with the chip-making side of T239, and not using TMSC like other tech giants do (PS5, PS5 Pro, Xbox Series X/S consoles all have semi-custom chips inside designed with AMD, fabbed at TSMC).

The deal between Nintendo, NVIDIA, and Samsung Foundry is a rather big one for Samsung Foundry, with insider @Jukenlosreve reporting from a DigiTimes article that both Sony and AMD are now interested in working with Samsung Foundry to make new chips for them, which could be a small (for now) but (later on a) major shift away from TSMC.

The Order: 1886 was supposed to be the start of a bold new trilogy of games for Ready At Dawn, but the game never gained enough traction and eventually the studio shut down.

PS4 launch game The Order: 1886 made waves in 2013 for its impressive cinematic sequences and eye-opening visuals. There was just one issue: the game was really short. As a result, Ready At Dawn's third-person action game didn't blow up as the studio had hoped it would--the devs ambitious plans for sequels.

We now have a better understanding of what could've been in The Order franchise. Former Ready At Dawn creative director Ru Weerasuriya recently outlined some of those ideas in a recent interview with French YouTuber Julien Chieze.

Discord announced Orbs, a new currency that can be earned from Quests and spent on cosmetic content.

A bit ago, Discord CEO Jason Citron resigned, signalling changes for the company. Humam Sakhnini, the former president of billion-dollar mobile titan King, took over as Discord's new CEO at a pivotal moment. We speculated that this new CEO could introduce higher levels of layered ad-related monetization into Discord's business model at a critical point as the company nears its potential IPO. Now that appears to be happening.

Discord is currently beta testing what it calls Discord Orbs, a digital currency that isn't purchased with real money. Instead, Orbs are earned through Quests, which are game-ified calls to action that require users to engage with ads in some way. Interactions include streaming a specific game to friends or watching video ads. Quests are also expanding, the company said.

Little over two years after announcing the game, billion-dollar games publisher Electronic Arts has cancelled its upcoming Black Panther project and has shut down the studio that was making it, Cliffhanger Games.

EA has closed another studio as continues spending cuts in a bid to stabilize earnings and avoid unnecessary risks. The announcement was made internally by EA Entertainment exec Laura Miele via email, which was then acquired by IGN.

According to Miele's memo, EA cancelled the game and closed the studio because the publisher is "moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry." EA also recently stepped away from licensing WRC games.

CD Projekt RED is currently working on three mysterious new projects, but only two of them are games.

Today, CD Projekt released its Q1 2025 earnings results, confirming 60 million copies of The Witcher 3 have been sold, that Cyberpunk 2 has entered the pre-production phase of its development, and also giving an update on the upcoming slate of incubation-level games.

The company has revealed it is working 9 projects total, three of which are shrouded in mystery and have yet to be announced. Management clarifies that these 3 mystery projects do not include the games discussed in the 2022 strategy update briefing; games like Hadar, Sirius, or even Cyberpunk 2 (formerly called Project Orion) don't count.

The upcoming Cyberpunk sequel has now entered pre-production phases of development, CD Projekt RED has confirmed.

CD Projekt gives a quick update on the progress of its new games, announcing that the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel is now in early stages of development. The game was previously known as Project Orion but is now referred to as Cyberpunk 2 by CD Projekt and currently has 96 people working in the pre-production phase. This indicates that Cyberpunk 2 is still many years away from release.

While the studio didn't reveal any details on Cyberpunk 2, the franchise's original creator did. In a recent interview, Cyberpunk series architect Mike Pondsmith said that Cyberpunk 2 will take players to a new dystopian city that feels "less like Blade Runner and more like Chicago gone wrong."

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has now reached 60 million copies sold, CD Projekt today announced.

CD Projekt's latest Q1 2025 results are out, and nestled in the report is confirmation of The Witcher 3's eye-opening sales figures. The game has now sold 60 million copies on all platforms and generations across the last decade. The company has confirmed that this number only includes full game sales of The Witcher 3 and the more recent game of the year version.

Interestingly enough, these staggering sales figures aren't accompanied by thunderous revenues; CD Projekt says that The Witcher 3 has made around 2.4 billion PLN in revenue, which is about $688 million in today's PLN to USD conversions. This highlights the company's emphasis on high volume sales through well-timed discounts and price drops. The Witcher 3 is routinely on sale, and was discounted to $5 on the PlayStation Store as part of the game's 10-year anniversary. Capcom is another company that similarly emphasizes game unit sales.

The launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 is only a few days away and it appears some people have already got their hands on the successor to the Nintendo Switch, as videos are appearing online along with reports about first experiences with the new console.

It was only yesterday that a video surfaced online of an individual opening the Nintendo Switch 2 box showing off its contents, such as the diagonally-placed Joy-Con 2 controllers, console, and more. Additionally, this same individual said that after booting up the console, it was prompted with a message to update the console, which they were unable to do, effectively rendering the console completely useless.

Early holders of the Nintendo Switch 2 essentially have paper weights since Nintendo is planning a day-one update for the console's launch, which will presumably unlock all of the consoles by updating firmware and operating system software to the same activated version. That seems to be the case in the latest leaked video, which shows a Nintendo Switch 2 being booted up, displaying the Nintendo Switch 2 logo and then the language preferences, along with a request for an internet connection.

Oblivion Remastered has been out for just over a month now, and fans of the new game have already begun churning out various mods designed to improve the experience of the legacy title.

One of those mods, highlighted by DSOGaming, is a new mod that adds more than 500 individual light sources to Imperial City, which creates a stark difference between the vanilla game and the modded version of the game. Above and below, you can see screenshots comparing the two, with the biggest difference being at night time, where Imperial City can be quite difficult to navigate. These individual light sources brighten up the environment with more ambient lighting, while also maintaining that same Imperial City feel.

Moreover, this new mod works with the Lumiere - Lights of Cyrodiil mod, which is a popular mod that adds hundreds of lights to the outdoors of Cyrodiil by adding in street lamps, lamps next to signs, outside lanterns and more. By using both of these mods in combination, a player would be able to experience Cyrodiil with much more substancial lighting than what is present in the vanilla game. If you are interested in checking out either of those mods, you can visit them here and here.

MindsEye is a soon-to-be-released action-adventure game developed by Build a Rocket Boy and is produced by former GTA producer Leslie Benzies.

According to reports, MindsEye has received quite a bit of negative pushback from players who have managed to get access to a preview of the game. Some previewers have even taken to social media platforms such as X with a laundry list of problems they have discovered with the title, such as it being "filled with bugs," the driving feeling "stiff," a short story, enemies "just run at the player," and more. Notably, the same list contains praises for the game, albeit only one, the cut scenes and animations look great.

However, according to Build a Rocket Boy co-CEO, the negative feedback MindsEye has received is being paid for in a "concerted effort" to take down the studio ahead of the title's release. Mark Gerhard, the fomrer CEO of Jagex, and Co-Chief Executive Officer & CTO of Build a Rocket Boy, was asked, "Do you think that all the people who reacted negatively were financed by someone?." Gerhard responded, "100%," "Doesn't take much to guess who."

Video game developers, especially smaller-scale ones, are less likely to ship their full game on a Switch 2 cartridge for one big reason: Price.

We've known for a while that full capacity Switch game cartridges are expensive. Publishers and developers have gotten around these costs by using smaller capacity Switch cartridges and splitting their games between the data on the cartridge and a digital download. The costs haven't come down for Switch 2 cartridges especially now that the new console uses MicroSD Express.

Nintendo has innovated with the Switch 2 by introducing Game-key Cards, which are basically special ultra-low capacity Switch 2 cartridges that come with an authentication key to download the game. This trend mixes both physical cartridges with digital downloads in a more uniform, low-cost way.

F1 25 is the latest edition of EA SPORTS' premier Formula 1 racing game. This year, it's stepping up its realism in-game visuals with a Full Ray Tracing or Path Tracing mode. Available now in Early Access, this new cutting-edge graphics option is optimized to run on GeForce RTX hardware thanks to its support for DLSS 4, Ray Reconstruction, and Multi Frame Generation.

Path tracing takes the game's ray tracing to the next level. All lights reflect and bounce around the scene realistically, leading to more accurate shadows and other effects. The results are stunning, with some of the shots in the video above from the YouTube channel Compusemble looking just about photorealistic. The video compares the same scenes with ray-tracing turned off, regular ray-tracing turned on, and full path tracing.

The difference is night and day, and F1 25 joins a growing list of path-tracing-enabled games that look stunning. Interestingly, F1 25 also uses NVIDIA's AI-powered ACE Audio2Face-3D technology for lip synching and facial animation based on voice actor recordings, which we'll probably start seeing more of in the months and years ahead.

Battlefield is currently undergoing regional playtesting on various platforms, with recent reports pointing to it being tested on PlayStation consoles, specifically the PS5 Pro.

A new report from MP1ST cites information from one playtester who showed the publication the new Battlefield is targeting 120FPS on the PS5 Pro. MP1ST writes while it cannot share the gameplay as it can be traced back to the leaker, it can confirm that by what its seen the game was running between 100 and 110FPS consistently, with the lowest drop being down to the high 80's, and this was only momentarily before it jumped back up to the hundreds. Notably, these high framerates were achieved even with a lot of destruction occurring around the player.

What is even better news is that in infantry combat, the new Battlefield was able to achieve a super-smooth 120FPS on a Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) enabled display. As for the dips to 80 FPS, the leaker said these occurrences were "rare." Unfortunately, while this is all fantastic news for PS5 Pro owners, the leaker didn't provide a resolution at which the game was running to achieve this framerate. We can only presume it will be 4K, or a resolution close to it.

The launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 is right around the corner, and some people have already received their console ahead of the official June 5 launch day. However, none of these consoles work.

A new leak shows a Nintendo Switch 2 box being opened, with the console and Joy-Con 2 controllers inside. According to the person who shared the video of the Switch 2 being out in the wild, the console is locked and "needs an update to function". The individual said they are waiting until June 5th to unlock it. Additionally, X user Wario64 recently wrote that another user shared they have obtained a Nintendo Switch 2 console and that when they attempted to boot a Switch 1 game, the following message appeared: "Please connect to the internet and update your system."

These rumors fall in line with previous reports that reviewers were not going to get samples from Nintendo until the launch day, and that systems will require a day-one update. It seems the day-one update will be to actually enable the console to function. The consoles arriving locked until June 5 is no mistake by Nintendo, and is in part being used as a strategy to prevent early coverage or leaks about the console before it officially launches on June 5. Quite smart.

Apple plans to release its own dedicated gaming app shortly after the Nintendo Switch 2's launch, sources tell Bloomberg.

Apple's gigantic $14.8 billion gaming empire has been jeopardized by recent court rulings; first in the Epic v Apple case, which found that Apple's App Store policies were anti-competitive, and then a federal judge found Apple's post-trial conduct to be in clear violation of an injunction order. Apple has also recently been found to have violated the Digital Markets Act by the European Commission.

It's fair to say that Apple's role in being a passive gatekeeper that rakes in billions upon billions of dollars a year via fees is over. A new era of gaming at Apple may be on the way (the company did recently just buy its first games studio), and now Apple will launch a centralized gaming app that aims to bring its content and services in one place.

Apple has confirmed that it has purchased its first video game studio, which consists of two developers behind a popular Apple Arcade title.

Digital Trends has reported that Apple has acquired RAC7, a two-person team that is behind the Apple Arcade title Sneaky Sasquatch. Apple informed the publication that the acquisition has gone through, with an Apple spokesperson writing, Apple loves Sneaky Sasquatch, and that the company is excited the RAC7 team has joined Apple to continue working on the title. Moreover, the acquisition was done to assist the two developers in growing their team and expanding Sneaky Sasquatch on Apple Arcade further.

RAC7 was founded in 2014 by Jason ennis and Jesse Ringrose, and while Apple's aquisition of the company marks its first purchase of a video game studio, it's not indicative of a new plan for Apple to scoop up major developers, as it informs the publication the RAC7 purchase was due to a unique circumstance. Notably, Apple still plans to work with many third-party studios to increase the number of games on Apple Arcade.

The launch for the Nintendo Switch 2 is less than 10 days away and as retailers gear up for what will be undoubtedly a stampede of excited Nintendo fans grabbing their new console, we now have the first pictures of the Switch 2 at US retailers.

In a Reddit post that has now been deleted, but unsurprisingly reuploaded to X, formerly Twitter, an employee of retailer Target has captured a picture of Switch 2 consoles within a cage that's presumably used to transport large quantities of stock from one section of the store to another. According to the post, the store received "around 40" consoles, 20 Mario Kart Bundles, and 20 regular Nintendo Switch 2 bundles.

For those wondering what games will be available at launch, Nintendo is kicking off the fun with Mario Kart World and Switch 2 Editions of its current-gen games, such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Additionally, there will be a selection of third-party launch games such as Split Fiction, Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, Street Fighter 6, Sonic X Shadows Generations, and more. As for more first-party Nintendo titles, Donkey Kong: Bananza is slated to release in July. The Nintendo Switch 2 is scheduled to launch globally on June 5.