Gaming News - Page 1607

Amazon's Prime service, while a paid one, does have a number of really beneficial advantages if you happen to use Amazon frequently. Free two-day shipping, access to Prime-exclusive movies for free and even discounts on the pre-ordering of games, come to mind. It seems that they might be selling some games, direct, only to Prime members, and it's a little confusing.

A small selection of games can only be bought directly from Amazon if you have Prime. That is, if you're looking for FIFA 16, Dishonored: The Definitive Edition, Minecraft, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Battlefield Hardline, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the year, and Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes. Amazon says that being able to buy certain games is a benefit of being a Prime member, even though you can simply buy them from the Marketplace, or somewhere else completely.

Gamesaradar has stumbled across the issue, though I've yet to be able to recreate it through friends that don't have Prime. Even when not signed-in, the desktop site doesn't indicate that it's a "Prime Only" deal. At least the desktop site is devoid of any indication. It could also be region specific, being that the article was written from by someone in the UK. Regardless, if it is indeed a growing trend, then it's odd that they would do such a thing without having, at the very least, a suitable discount that makes it more lucrative to use Amazon instead.

Modder uLLeticaL noticed a change on the Steam Workshop page for his Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map Aim Botz, indicating a paid mods system may be returning to Valve's service. A new message on it reads, "You can subscribe to this item for free because you are the creator or listed as a contributor."

If you attempt to subscribe to it and aren't a creator or contributor, it simply subscribes you as normal, but the above message leads one to believe that could change before long. Other games such as Arma 3 are said to show this message as well.

While paid Workshop mods went down poorly before, uLLeticaL says modders would welcome a donation-based system. Time will tell if that's the case.

Rocket League was is one of the best surprises to come out of 2015. Its blend of racing and soccer (or football for those elsewhere) has been a treat for casual and competitive play. Psyonix is running a free promotion this weekend that lets anyone interesting in using automobiles to slam a ball into a net can do so. It started Yesterday, April 21st at 10AM PT and will run through Sunday, April 24th 10am PT.

They say that it's completely free to everyone, regardless of whether you've bought it or not. And after the free weekend, they're discounting it by 40% until 10am on the 25th of April. To sweeten the deal they've also discounted all the various bundles and DLC packs by 20% as well, just in case you'd like a specific skin pack or something else.

Psyonix has been very supportive of their hybrid sports game with several optional DLC packs and quite a few updates that have addressed many different issues. Coming soon, the next update will add a basketball-themed motif to it, letting you try your hand and driving a smaller ball into an even smaller net off the ground. Hoops is coming April 26th for free and for everyone. They've even officially partnered with the NBA to offer an NBA flag pack with 30 different flags. Everyone will get one, at least, for free with the update, however.

After what seems like an eternity of waiting, Atlus may finally reveal Persona 5's release date. Let's just hope it's not delayed again.

Persona 5's official Japanese website now has a mysterious countdown timer with the single cryptic phrase "take your heart", hinting that some big news is about to drop. The timer is counting down to May 5 (5/5) so we could finally see a concrete release date for the hotly anticipated JRPG.

Fans have been avidly looking forward to Persona 5's release date for nearly a year now, and the absence of any news or info from Atlus has been obsessively noted. As a result of the scarce updates, the major consensus of the gaming community is that Persona 5 won't drop on during its slated Q3 2016 window and will instead be delayed into 2017. Persona 5 was already delayed once--it was originally planned to launch in 2015, but Atlus pushed it back to Summer 2016. Now that summer is right around the corner, and we've yet to see Atlus blow the lid on the game, we'll likely see yet another delay.

Just how big is the eSports industry right now? Well, it's on the path to making $463 million this year, according to a new report from PwC. This means the eSports industry has grown by a staggering 43% from 2015.

PwC's report also has some data on the eSports industry itself, with the most popular game by viewership being League of Legends. Around 63% of eSports viewers said they were turning in for first-person shooters, while 57% of those polled describe themselves as "hardcore" gamers.

Female gamers surveyed didn't exactly describe themselves as hardcore gamers, but instead they were "involved in eSports". This is exciting, as it means there are more and more women getting into gaming, which is awesome. The gaming world is filled with young (and old), media-consuming audience, which is why there are so many companies pumping time, effort and most of all, money into eSports.

EA DICE must be in some serious meetings right now, delaying the release of Mirror's Edge Catalyst from late next month into June 7 - the third delay in total now. Well, the closed beta has been started by some, with 'xjumper' posting some images from the Xbox One version of Mirror's Edge Catalyst.

The user notes that the game could possibly running at just 1280x720 at 60FPS on the Xbox One, which isn't unusual as most Frostbite-powered games like Battlefield 4, Battlefield Hardline and even Star Wars Battlefront all ran at 720p on the Xbox One. The PS4 on the other hand, is more capable with Frostbite and its more powerful internals, pumping out Frostbite-powered games at 900p @ 60FPS.

The PC version won't suffer from these potato resolutions, as it'll scale up to 4K and beyond - with multi-monitor users set in for a treat. EA DICE shared the official PC system requirements a few days ago, which we reported on here. After checking out the screenshots, it's apparent that the PC version of Mirror's Edge Catalyst looks beautiful while the console versions are very, very watered down. But, this is a game where 60FPS is needed, which is probably the reason for baked down graphics and what looks like, 720p.

AMD has just talked about its recent earnings with investors, where the chipmaker teased the existence of the next-gen Xbox, as well as the upcoming beefier PlayStation 'Neo' console from Sony - oh, and the next-gen Nintendo NX console. AMD is everywhere when it comes to custom chips powering next-gen consoles.

Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, said during the earnings call that the semi-custom contract wins were in the gaming sector. Su continued, saying that "semi-custom business and gaming" will be the "larger driver" of Q2's revenue growth. She told reporters: "If you think about the semi-custom business in the past few years, the third quarter is always the peak. It will be the peak this year, as well, but we're starting some of the ramping in the second quarter as we build to the stronger third quarter".

Now, ramping up in Q2 for a stronger Q3 could mean that we see next-gen consoles revealed at E3 2016 (which takes place in late Q2) while the release of these consoles would happen in the holidays - closer to Q3. Su was asked who was purchasing the semi-custom designs, to which she said: "I don't believe we've gone through any detail about what those wins are. I'd prefer to let that come out as our customers are ready to launch".

Here we go again... EA DICE have just announced they've delayed Mirror's Edge Catalyst, again. This is the third delay, with the original launch of February 23 being pushed back to May 24, and now again to June 7.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst will now be released in the US on June 7 and throughout Europe two days later on June 9. The developer is about to kick off the closed beta for Mirror's Edge Catalyst, where the company will test out the game's new online-connected "social play" features. The new social play features include time trials and leaderboards, with EA DICE adding that it has developed "brand new online technology" in order to support them. Maybe it's so new, it explains why the game has been delayed.

Design Director on Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, Erik Odelhaul, explained on the game's website: "We also want to make sure we have the opportunity and time to address player feedback from the Closed Beta. We're confident that these extra two weeks will make sure the game is as amazing as possible for you the players".

Sony's PlayStation Network is getting a much-needed security overhaul by adding in two-factor authentication for all PSN accounts.

PlayStation Network accounts are notoriously easy to hack, leading to ridiculous unauthorized charges on PSN accounts. In an attempt to thwart this, Sony plans to add two-step authentication to all PSN accounts in the future. "In order to further safeguard our users and their accounts, we are preparing to offer a 2-step verification feature," a Sony rep to Polygon.

Two-step authentication requires users to submit two separate pieces of data to access an account, effectively adding another security barrier. Soon users will have to enter more than just a password to log into the PlayStation Network. We don't know exactly when Sony will add in this extra security feature, with the rep saying that "more details will be shared at a later date."

Nintendo's new Miitomo smartphone game is collecting more data than Facebook, making it an extremely valuable tool for the Japanese gaming giant.

In this day and age consumers find data collection quite worrisome, especially with big companies like Facebook soaking up so much valuable user info. But Nintendo's new Miitomo app has managed to trounce Facebook's data collection after being on the market for only three weeks. The trick is that Nintendo has made sharing personal information into a game, creating a colorful and fun environment where friends can learn more about each other.

Miitomo rewards players with in-game currency for answering basic questions about their personalities, favorite foods, songs, television shows and much more. In this way, Nintendo offers incentives to users to actively participate in sharing their personal data--much of which could steadily feed Nintendo possibly invaluable user info. The most surprising part, though, is that Miitomo just asks for the data using cute miniature Mii characters. I think it's all about the presentation and execution, and Nintendo adds a personality and a face to its agency of data-collection, rather than a boring survey or pesky emails.