Gaming - Page 158

Xbox just delivered record Q3 results, and these earnings helped boost the profitability of its home segment.

Microsoft's Q3'FY25 earnings show an uptick in Xbox revenues, with the games division raking in $5.721 billion in the period. This is a new all-time third quarter record for Xbox that pushes cumulative 9-month revenues to nearly $18 billion.

But what about profitability? That's information that we don't get. Microsoft only reports profits of its individual segments, and since Xbox is part of Microsoft's More Personal Computing segment, we don't get actual profit margins for the Xbox division. We can still analyze the full extent in what Microsoft says about gaming, though.

Microsoft's latest Q3 results are in, and it's good news for Xbox.

Today, Microsoft announced its Q3'FY25 earnings results, showing a strong uptick in games earnings during a particularly slow time of the year for gaming. Throughout the Q3 period, which took place from Jan 1 - March 31, 2025, Xbox generated $5.721 billion in total revenue. That makes Q3'25 a record-breaking third quarter for Xbox.

Xbox gaming earnings were up +5% year-over-year, or $270 million, over last year's results, delivering a total of $5.721 billion. Content and services led this increase with a +8% year-over-year jump, driven by growth in Xbox Game Pass, Call of Duty, and Minecraft, two of Microsoft's franchises. There was no other real information about the gaming segment in the reports and we may get more information from Satya Nadella and Microsoft management during the earnings call.

Electronic Arts has unfortunately stopped active development on the EA Sports WRC series.

Yesterday, it was revealed that publisher EA was laying off anywhere from 300 to 400 people (including 100 developers at Respawn) in a bid to cut costs amid significant economic uncertainty. Two projects were also cancelled at Respawn, including a Titanfall game. Now EA is hitting the snooze button on one the more fringe sports franchises under its banner, EA Sports WRC.

"After releasing EA SPORTS WRC in 2023, the 2024 season, including the recently released Hard Chargers Content pack, will be our last expansion," reads the announcement.

NVIDIA has just announced it is giving away DOOM: The Dark Ages Premium Edition with select GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs.

In a new post on its website, NVIDIA confirms that select GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs in both desktop and laptop form will get free copies of DOOM: The Dark Ages. This includes the GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti or RTX 5070 graphics card purchases, or a gaming PC with one of those desktop GPUs inside.

On the laptop side of things, it includes any gaming laptop with the GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU, RTX 5080 Laptop GPU, RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU, or RTX 5070 Laptop GPU. NVIDIA isn't including its mid-range GeForce RTX 5060 Ti or RTX 5060 GPUs in either desktop or laptop form, this is for the higher-end Blackwell GPUs.

Nintendo's new Game-key Cards offer a cost-effective way for partners to publishers to ship physical products that contain digital games, but it's not the best for games preservation.

Nintendo has found a novel way to help contain the rising costs of physical distribution: Delivering a digital game in a physical cartridge. The Switch 2's new Game-key cards don't have the full game on them and instead require gamers to download the game digitally--it's exactly what it sounds like, a game key card.

While this update is great for business (Switch and Switch 2 cartridges are not exactly cheap to produce), it poses a potential threat for games preservation. Digital games are transient and can often be delisted and updated over time. The original experience gets lost to time unless there's a hard copy of the code somewhere--unless someone has backed it up, that launch experience could just vanish.

Krafton, the South Korean company behind megaton success PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), has announced an ambitious plan to make IP the center of a connected gaming ecosystem.

Krafton has plans to make a veritable PUBG network of products, content, and services. This plan, dubbed PUBG 2.0, incorporates key elements of conceptual models like Franchise-as-a-service (FaaS) and Games-as-a-Platform (GaaP), both of which will run alongside and within one another.

The group has three new PUBG-related products in development including an extraction shooter, a new console-oriented battle royale game, and a isometric tactical project.

Sony has revealed the games that PlayStation Plus subscribers will get in May, and they include Balatro, Ark: Survival Ascended, and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun.

If you're signed up to PlayStation Plus you'll get that trio of games from May 6 if you own a PlayStation 5, although those yet to make the leap from the PS4 platform won't be able to play Ark: Survival Ascended (but they'll be fine with the other two games).

Balatro is, of course, a potently compelling twist on poker, and the roguelike deckbuilder established itself as a massive hit last year, coming from out of nowhere to rack up a ton of sales.

Dataminers have discovered a seemingly abandoned multiplayer mode within Assassin's Creed Shadows, with at least three instances of a multiplayer mode recently discovered within the game files.

A new report from Insider Gaming has cited an X post by video game modder Sliderv2, who shared screenshots of elements, or at the very least the mentionings of a multiplayer mode within Assassin's Creed Shadows. More specifically, it appears Ubisoft was working on a Player versus Player (PVP) mode as files with titles such as 'RED_PVP_Maps' and 'RED_PVP_Gym' were discovered. Notably, the codename used by Ubisoft for Assassin's Creed Shadows was "Codename Red".

Furthermore, the multiplayer mode, which currently isn't available in Assassin's Creed Shadows, may not be abandoned at all, as Insider Gaming reported back in October 2024 that it had learned a multiplayer/co-op mode was in development and scheduled to release after the game was made available. It's possible these files aren't permanently abandoned, but just temporarily, while development continues on a multiplayer mode. At the time, the multiplayer mode was codenamed LEAGUE, and details on how it would play weren't obtained by the publication.

Nintendo announced during its Switch 2-dedicated Direct a new feature for both the upcoming console and the original Nintendo Switch, and that feature was Game Share, which enables owners of either console to share a game with other Nintendo Switch devices locally, even if the owner has a single copy.

Nintendo explains Game Share as follows: "play together locally on multiple systems using just one game." Notably, this feature won't work when trying to share Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive titles to the original Nintendo Switch. A basic rule of thumb here is that if the game is compatible with both systems, Game Share will be available.

The feature is locked to local play, meaning users will have to be connected to the same wireless network to be able to share games across systems. Additionally, the Nintendo Switch 2 must be the console to initiate the Game Share feature, meaning the feature cannot be used between two original Nintendo Switch systems. Original Nintendo Switch systems have just received a massive update from Nintendo that has laid the groundwork for GameShare ahead of the official launch of the Switch 2 on June 5, as Nintendo details in its recent patch notes for the console, the following:

Remember Flappy Bird? You probably do, as it was a shock hit out of nowhere back in 2013 - and if you wanted to give it another whirl, it's back in business, albeit with a somewhat controversial twist.

To refresh your memory, the game is a side-scroller where you control a little bird, navigating it between green pipes by tapping the screen to flap (and move upwards).

It was (and is) a tricky game to master, and it proved highly addictive, which became a point of controversy itself, until eventually its creator, Dong Nguyen, ditched the game. (Following a whole bunch of accusations and flak fired at Nguyen - such as frustrated kids breaking their phones - leading him to remark that it "ruined his life" at one point).

Randy Pitchford, the director of Gearbox, the developers of the Borderlands franchise, has put to bed rumors that the rescheduled release date for Borderlands 4 has been influenced by the release dates of other games, particularly Grand Theft Auto 6.

It was only recently that Gearbox announced it will be teaming up with PlayStation for a special showcase of Borderlands 4, and that it will be moving the scheduled release date of the game by 11 days to September 12. The original release date of September 23, and now the switch to the current release date of September 12 has sparked a tyriad of rumors about why Gearbox has decided to release the game early, with many of those rumors and online chatter pointing to Gearbox wanting to dodge the release date of other titles such as Grand Theft Auto 6 to give Borderlands 4 the best chance of commercial success.

However, that simply isn't the case, or at least according to Pitchford, who recently took to X, formerly Twitter, to put the rumors to bed. Pitchford said the new release date for Borderlands 4 has nothing to do with the release date of any other game, and the decision to ship the game early is "100% the result of confidence in the game and development trajectory backed by actual tasks and bug find/fix rates."

CD Projekt Red, the developers behind The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, have revealed more details about the upcoming port to the Nintendo Switch 2, teasing that players will be able to take advantage of the Joy-Con 2 controllers in a way that enables new levels of immersion.

Posted to the Nintendo of America YouTube channel, CD Projekt Red developers shared more details about the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 edition of Cyberpunk 2077, saying that players wanting to experience the game on the go, whether they are returning or new players will feel right at home since the Switch 2 hardware enables this port to be the best handheld version of the game.

For players wondering how the Nintendo Switch 2 port of Cyberpunk 2077 stacks up against console editions of the game, studio engineer Tim Green said last week that the Switch 2 version of Cyberpunk 2077 is a more capable version than what was released on the PS4 and Xbox One. Indicative of that hardware improvement is Cyberpunk 2077's main DLC expansion, Phantom Liberty, not being released on previous gen consoles (PS4 and Xbox One), but being available on the Nintendo Switch 2.

Microsoft has confirmed that an advertisement it released for Copilot+ PCs more than 2 months ago was created using generative AI, subverting the expectations of everyone who has already viewed it.

Microsoft revealed the ad was made with generative AI in a new Microsoft Design post, where it states the Visual Design team at Microsoft was required to create an ad for the company's latest Surface Pro and Surface Laptop for Business Copilot+ PCs, but the challenge was to have it done within a month. In order to overcome this challenge, the team outsourced the work to generative AI, with Microsoft's Windows + Devices Visual Design team explaining in the blog post that by doing this, it enabled them to save "90% of the time and cost it would typically take."

The team stated that it created a script, storyboards, and a pitch deck for the advertisement using unspecified AI tools. Since AI still struggles with human motion, the team combined the AI-generated scenes with some human-created ones to fill in the areas where the AI was lacking. What's interesting is that before Microsoft revealed the ad was created with AI, none of the thousands of people who viewed it suspected it was AI-generated, which is indicative of exponentially improving quality of AI-generated content.

I began playing RuneScape around 11 years old, enjoying hundreds of hours in the classic MMORPG with my close real-life friends, then it received its Evolution of Combat update, and we quit. The fire for no-exp-waste and completing tedious quests was relit when OldSchool RuneScape was announced.

After it was released, the same group of friends poured thousands of hours into OldSchool, pushing each of our characters to the point where we have achieved multiple 99s in skills, made hundreds of millions of GP, and ultimately, were able to complete the most end-game content available.

Then RuneScape: Dragonwilds was unveiled, and we all thought we should put this game to the test in the same way we used to play RuneScape as kids - a traditional LAN party where we bring all our PCs over to the same house, order pizza, drink soft drink, and play the game all day and night until we are falling asleep at the keyboard. So, that's what we did. Here's our experience from the perspective of four veteran RuneScape players in the new co-op survival crafting experience based on the classic MMORPG, RuneScape.

EA is laying off between 300 to 400 workers and has cancelled numerous projects, sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

As economic uncertainty looms in the United States, publisher Electronic Arts is executing another round of company-wide layoffs as part of its cost savings plan. Hundreds of people are to be affected by the layoffs, including 100 people at Respawn, the lucrative group responsible for billion-dollar service game Apex Legends.

Sources tell Bloomberg that Respawn has cancelled a new game set in the Titanfall universe as part of these layoffs. The game, codenamed R7, was said to be an extraction shooter that was in early stages of development and still needed much more time before it was ready for release.

Xbox Game Pass may have generated $2 billion in annual revenue during the pandemic

Game Pass is somewhat of a mystery. Over the years, we've indirectly discovered how much money the service makes. Brazilian regulatory board CADE accidentally published that Game Pass made $2.9 billion in 2021 (this info was later redacted). Then in 2022, Phil Spencer gave us a percentage that we used to calculate Game Pass earnings for both 2021 and 2022.

Somehow we missed an interesting tidbit from the LinkedIn profile of Richie Choudhary, who served as the Xbox head of product from 2019 - 2021. According to Choudhary, Game Pass "stands at $2 billion per year," indicating that the service could have made $2 billion throughout 2021, or even that Game Pass made around $2 billion per year in the 3-year span from 2019 - 2021.

Gearbox is ready to showcase Borderlands 4 gameplay, and they're teaming up with PlayStation to make it happen.

Today, Gearbox's Randy Pitchford announced that Borderlands 4 will now release on September 12, 2025, which is 11 days earlier than its original release date of September 23.

The devs will highlight guided Borderlands 4 gameplay during a special PlayStation State of Play coming tomorrow at 5PM EST. It'll include co-op gameplay, so expect to see everything from crazy new skill synergies to outrageous weapons and ridiculous bosses.

Despite an increase from Call of Duty's launch on Game Pass, spending on video game subscriptions has been relatively stable yet flat throughout the last few years, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella says.

Game subscriptions aren't expected to replace full game sales any time soon--in fact, trends show that subscription hasn't really grown since a spike in the holiday season when Call of Duty was launched on Game Pass.

"US spending on video game subscriptions had been basically flat for years following 2020-21 growth, only boosted by 12% in Q4 thanks to CoD going to Game Pass," Piscatella said on Bluesky.

Curious as to what the PC spec requirements are for Elden Ring Nightreign? Well, wonder no longer, as FromSoftware has let us know what the next instalment in the franchise will ask for hardware-wise.

As you can see from the above post on X, there's some good news on the GPU front, as Nightreign isn't hugely taxing on the graphics front (assuming you don't want to crank the details, naturally).

The developer tells us that it'll be possible to run Nightreign with an NVIDIA GTX 1060 3GB or AMD RX 580 4GB, although as this is the minimum requirement, don't expect a great experience.

Bethesda's surprise The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered launch has been a massive success, highlighting the enduring popularity of the original 2006 game and the Elder Scrolls series. The new Unreal Engine 5-powered visuals look incredible, even when paired with the almost twenty-year-old RPG's fun Bethesda-jank and dated design. With over four million players, it's still one of the most-played games on Steam, with an impressive peak player count of 216,784 recorded yesterday.

And now, with the game's success, Bethesda Game Studios is opening the floor to the Elder Scrolls community and Oblivion fans to chime in and tell them what they'd like to see added to the game or changed. You can access the new 'oblivion-suggestions' channel on the studio's official Discord, and already it's chock-full of great ideas that we'd love to see added.

From a dedicated photo mode so gamers can capture stunning shots and funny photos to a new difficulty mode that should sit between Adept and Expert, here's a list of the most requested and up-voted changes the community would like to see.