Gaming - Page 169

Ubisoft management is still ironing out all the details of the new billion-dollar Tencent deal and seem unsure exactly where the cards will fall.

Things are looking up for Ubisoft. Assassin's Creed Shadows is a hit with 3 million players and the second-largest launch revenues in franchise history, and Ubisoft just secured a critical $1.2 billion investment from Tencent to help pay down debts and stabilize Ubisoft's books.

The deal does complicate things. Ubisoft has effectively splintered into two groups: Ubisoft 1, which will handle the main operations and record-keeping, and Ubisoft 2, a subsidiary that now has exclusive rights to Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. Tencent purchased 25% stake in Ubisoft 2 with its $1.2 billion investment. Tencent also has ~10% stake in Ubisoft 1, and purchased 49.9% stake in Ubisoft 1's majority shareholder Guillemot Bros. Ltd., which is run by Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family.

We are closing in on the official close-up look of the Nintendo Switch 2 scheduled to take place on April 2, and before Nintendo hopefully answers the majority of the unanswered questions gamers have about the Switch 2, we have a rumor about the resolutions it will support.

Previous rumors indicated that Nintendo's next-generation console will come with support for 4K video output when docked, but according to Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, who revealed during the latest episode of the Insider Gaming Weekly podcast, a developer informed him at the Game Developer Conference (GDC) the developer kit Nintendo provided to developers didn't come with support for 4K video output. Additionally, Henderson said in emails that he was told the new console doesn't support 4K output.

While this may be disappointing for some, it should be noted that developer kits aren't always identical to the specifications of the console that arrives on shelves. An example of this would be developer kits offering more memory than the final console for debugging purposes, while also leaving out features that will be in the final console but are not necessary for developers to make their game.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has responded to some heavy criticism about his ability to achieve top leaderboard rankings while running multiple industry-leading businesses simultaneously.

The business magnate shared a video of him playing Diablo IV on March 29, seemingly clearing an end-game-level room with ease. The video sparked some fairly contentious replies from the public, with one commenter writing that right after the video was taken, "the 18-year-old intern was right back in playing with your account." The commenter continued and said, "Nobody believes that you are the global top 3 player in between running the federal government and managing world companies. Do better; this is simply not possible."

Musk responded to this comment with his own reply, cheekily writing, "You're right. I should be #1. I got overconfident with Kekius_Maximus, and he died." For those who don't know, Kekius_Maximus is the name of the character Musk was playing. Notably, Musk has already admitted to cheating and breaking the terms of service of both Path of Exile 2 and Diablo IV for account sharing.

Bit Reactor, a studio formed by key Firaxis members who worked on the modern XCOM strategy titles, is developing a new turn-based tactical Star Ware game in collaboration with Respawn Entertainment. With the game announced in 2022, it's expected to be revealed next month at the Star Wars Celebration, with the game getting its panel.

Ahead of its debut, we've gotten our first look at the game via MP1st, which has posted screenshots from a Bit Reactor artist who posted them to an online portfolio with the codename "Star Wars Bruno." Although these screenshots are from mid-2023, they clearly show gameplay and elements reminiscent of modern XCOM-style turn-based tactics games.

One of the screenshots that you can see above shows two units with Mandalorian armor in 'Overwatch' cover formation. In these games, any enemy that enters the 'Overwatch' zone is automatically fired upon. The screenshot also shows a Jedi character, a droid, and a clone trooper, with another zooming in on a Mandalorian unit choosing to throw a thermal detonator with a UI that includes controller button icons.

Jagex has officially showcased a new RuneScape game powered by the incredible Unreal Engine 5 in new gameplay and teaser trailers.

RuneScape: Dragonwilds is an all-new open-world survival crafting game powered by Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5, and will take players to the forgotten continent of Ashenfall, where dragons have awoken. Players will need to gather resources, build, improve skills, and, of course, fight the dangerous inhabitants of the continent to survive. Dragonwilds has already received a Steam listing where more details for the title can be found.

According to the listing, Dragonwilds will be a 1-4 player co-op title where progress for the party will be under constant threat from the "looming shadow of the Dragons".

CD Projekt isn't developing generative AI tools to make new games like The Witcher 4.

AI is growing and growing--OpenAI just raised another $40 billion, leading to a $300 billion valuation--and it seems like everyone plans to use it in some way. The tech sector in particular is leveraging AI in various ways behind the scenes, with Microsoft even going so far as to create a tool that can render a third-person shooter in real-time without a developer's help.

Generative AI is on the forefront and poses many possibilities and risks for the games industry. But not everyone is on board, and Polish developer CD Projekt isn't ready to go all-in on this kind of AI.

Korean game giants are currently dueling over the rights to one of the most popular video games in the region.

Everyone wants to make a StarCraft game--At least that's what it seems like in South Korea, where four major video game companies are vying for the StarCraft franchise. Sources tell newspaper Asia Today that NC Soft, Nexon, Netmarble, and Krafton are all interested in making a new entry in the StarCraft universe.

Each has seen tremendous success in various markets and fields, with NCSoft innovating the MMORPG genre and Krafton helping mature PUBG and the battle royale genres. Reports say that each of the four companies are also leaning into their core strengths. Nexon, for example, could leverage StarCraft as a cross-platform game; NCSoft could make an RPG; Netmarble might transform StarCraft into a mobile F2P game; and Krafton could make a first-person or third-person style experience.

Nintendo has denied Switch 2 devkits to The Embracer Group, new reports indicate.

Nintendo is taking their time with distributing Switch 2 hardware development kits. Earlier today, Digital Foundry reiterated previous reports that some dev teams are waiting on Switch 2 kits: "Based on a lot of the things I've heard it also seems like many many many many developers are still without," DF's John Linnemann said.

Now there's reports that some companies have been denied devkits altogether. Sources have told games reporter Imran Khan that Embracer was one such group. The reality is that Embracer's business was seen as so volatile and unpredictable that Nintendo didn't want its precious, ultra-secret hardware to go missing should an Embracer subsidiary be shut down.

ASUS just teased the new "Xbox handheld," which is actually a Windows-powered PC similar to the existing ROG Ally.

Today ASUS dropped an interesting teaser trailer for a new device. Based on the footage, there's only one thing it could be: Some sort of handheld. Both Xbox and ASUS aren't being too enigmatic, either: Based on the recent leaks about Project Kennan, a lot of people are expecting an Xbox handheld of some kind. It's not exactly a surprise.

The footage also reflects this by flashing some not-so-subtle Xbox ABXY controller face buttons on the new ROG Ally's screen. The Xbox socials also responded to ASUS on Twitter with a perfect meme. The new Xbox-branded ROG Ally should be revealed soon with tons of info about what to expect from the handheld (and likely with the semi-disappointing realization that it's not a native Xbox handheld, but a native Windows handheld instead).

Microsoft typically has more games in the PlayStation Store's global top 10 pre-order charts than Sony does, new findings show.

Last year, Microsoft had more first-party games on PlayStation's best-seller list than Sony did. Now the same is true for PlayStation Store pre-order charts across select geographies. This new data suggests that Microsoft's plan to break Xbox platform exclusivity and bring its first-party games to PlayStation is continuing to pay off.

To get a better idea of how Microsoft's games are performing on PlayStation when it comes to pre-orders, I simply scanned the PS Store pages for various global regions. The data shows the top 10 pre-ordered games on the PlayStation Store across 14 different locales. According to the data, there were more Xbox games in all worldwide top 10 pre-order lists than there were PlayStation games.

This is DOOM: The Dark Ages, the highly anticipated prequel follow-up to 2020's excellent DOOM Eternal and the third game in the modern DOOM re-imagining from id Software. With its release around the corner for PC and consoles, thanks to Bethesda, we had the chance to go hands-on with a pre-release build of the game and play close to four hours of the intense medieval dark fantasy sci-fi action running in 4K on a GeForce RTX 5080 rig.

As game director Hugo Martin describes, DOOM: The Dark Ages presents a different experience from Eternal's "run and gun" arena-style action to a more grounded "stand and fight" approach. This sees the Slayer move around like an iron tank with a speed boost as he wields a Shield Saw, Flail, Super Shotgun, and arsenal of weaponry. Unlike Eternal, you can feel the weight of each step, adding to the prequel's focus on the Slayer being this ultimate weapon - an unstoppable demon-slaying force.

We immediately noticed this when playing through the game's introductory sequence, which sees the Slayer transported into the midst of a massive battle from an orbiting battle station by some pretty incredible-looking aliens. The art direction and character design are next-level, and the well-directed cinematics present much more DOOM story and lore than we're used to.

inZOI is a new take on The Sims-style life simulator that was released into Early Access last week and is currently one of the best-selling titles on the platform. It's a GeForce-friendly title running on Unreal Engine 5 with ray-tracing, DLSS support, and in-game AI characters powered by NVIDIA ACE technologies. However, due to instability issues, the developer recommends that all GeForce RTX 40 Series owners roll back to GeForce Game Ready Driver 566.36 from December 5, 2024, before playing the game.

The First Berserker: Khazan is a new Souls-like action RPG with a dark tone and intense combat that also launched last week. It's another GeForce-friendly title with DLSS 4 support, NVIDIA Reflex, and Frame Generation. However, due to instability issues, the developer recommends that all GeForce RTX 40 Series owners roll back to GeForce Game Ready Driver 566.36 from December 5, 2024, before playing.

With game developers actively recommending that GeForce RTX 40 Series owners roll back to a driver from last year, it sounds like there are serious issues with GeForce Game Ready Drivers from 2025. Hopefully, NVIDIA will formally acknowledge and address this as soon as possible.

The biggest question in gaming right now is by far "what is the release date for Grand Theft Auto VI," and that question has been partially answered by the CEO of franchise.

Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto franchise has sat down for an interview where he was asked about the secrecy surrounding the launch date for GTA 6, especially considering many competing franchises reveal their release dates so early in their development.

Judging from these comments from Zelnick we can expect the marketing for GTA 6 to begin a few months before the release of GTA 6, which is scheduled to release sometime in the Fall of 2025. What these marketing materials will be is anyone's guess, but it will presumably be the second trailer for the title, which judging by Take-Two's previous marketing scheduled for past titles, is already due for release.

Reports indicate that publishers are wary to set release dates for their games because no one wants to compete against Grand Theft Auto 6.

GTA 6 is set to "save" the games industry by capitalizing on 12 years of hype. Rockstar's new Grand Theft Auto is expected to be so big that it will collectively uplift the console games industry--after all, you can only play it on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S at launch.

There's also the disastrous effect of GTA's wake, and publishers don't want to see their $100 million AAA games get swallowed up. Some companies are even ready to push back their projects just in case GTA 6 does meet its intended Fall 2025 launch timing. Bosses at various publishers tell The Game Business' Chris Dring that they're poised to delay games to steer clear of GTA 6.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick reiterates that long development cycles are funded by the company's strong balance sheet.

If GTA 6 releases in 2025 as planned, then it'll have been 12 years in since GTA 5 released in 2013. Why has it taken over a decade? Games are tough to make, but more importantly, the length of development is directly depending on how much funding is available. Rockstar makes tons of revenue every year, and while Rockstar is owned by Take-Two Interactive, Take-Two's royalty-sharing & incentive plans ensure Rockstar have a hefty treasure vault to fund new games--especially something as big as Grand Theft Auto.

In a recent interview with Wall Street Week's David Westin, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick commented on how the company's continued performance growth create a kind of virtuous cycle that enables longer periods of development, presumably for bigger games that could have significant payoffs (like Grand Theft Auto 6).

Ubisoft just made a deal with Tencent to spin off Ubisoft's most valuable franchises to a separate company. Employees are worried about what happens to the existing Ubisoft organization--will more layoffs ensue? Ubisoft management effectively tells workers to hold tight and wait for more info.

Amid many quarters of disappointing results and growing financial pressure, Ubisoft and Tencent have teamed up. Tencent has invested $1.2 billion into a new Ubisoft subsidiary (off-handedly known as"Ubisoft 2") in exchange for 25% of financial stake in the new subsidiary.

Internal memos from Ubisoft's CEO have made employees antsy--those that remain after the culling of jobs as part of Ubisoft's strict cost-cutting plan. People are worried that more layoffs are coming.

Gamers, investors, and users can now see how Ubisoft discussed its new shake-up with employees.

Ubisoft has announced a new mega-deal with Tencent; the Chinese firm invested roughly $1.2 billion into a new Ubisoft subsidiary in exchange for 25% of stake in the group.

The internal memo from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot regarding that announcement has been acquired by Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, with the CEO stressing the new business partnership will help boost profits through a new focus reform.

MindsEye, the sci-fi action thriller from the mind of former Rockstar lead Leslie Benzies, has received an official June 10 release date and a 2-minute story trailer to boot.

MindsEye was first revealed at Sony's February State of Play. Featuring a dystopian sci-fi cityscape and high-octane combat, the game stars protagonist Jacob Diaz, an ex-soldier who attempts to navigate through a world fogged by AI, high-tech experimentation, and military corruption.

The game's initial marketing focused on the darker, psychological aspects of the experience. However, the latest story reveal takes a different direction, opting for a faster-paced tone as it shows off the game's world, characters, and narrative.

Krafton, the team behind inZOI, has come under fire again after it was recently discovered that a bug in the game allowed players to run over children with their cars.

Footage of the bug has appeared on YouTube. It showcases a player accidentally driving into a group of children. One of the NPCs is sent flying across the screen in rag-doll-like fashion, and according to players' accounts, it immediately kills NPCs on impact - regardless of their age.

Given that inZOI holds a 'Teen' rating from the ESRB, the vehicular massacre of children certainly poses some obvious qualms, and the developers have been quick to patch it out in a recent update.

Schedule I, the indie-drug dealing sim, has continued its breakout run - continuing to top the charts, and recently, surpassing Marvel Rivals among the most played games on Steam.

At the time of writing, the game holds a peak player count of 234,900 players on SteamDB, enough to pass free-to-play Hero shooter Marvel Rivals, which peaked today at 190,000. Schedule I now lingers behind Monster Hunter: Wilds, which has 275,000 players, and continues to hold its #1 spots for "Trending Games", "Popular Releases", and "Hot Releases".

The indie darling is commonly described as a cartoony video-game equivalent of Breaking Bad, exploding in popularity since its March 24 early-access launch. On day one, the game peaked at 116,000 players, with 4,000 'overwhelmingly positive' reviews. Since then, player counts have effectively doubled, while holding its 95% positive score over 16,000 ratings.