Gaming - Page 200

Windows 11 24H2 ran into difficulties with some Ubisoft games, and therefore the upgrade was blocked for users with those titles installed - but the good news is that a fix is now in place for two of said games.

The affected Ubisoft games were three Assassin's Creed outings (Valhalla, Origins, Odyssey) along with Star Wars Outlaws, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Those games would freeze up (with a black screen crash in some cases), and this could happen when loading, or during gameplay.

A hotfix was pretty swiftly released for Star Wars Outlaws, and now Avatar has one, as well, so owners of those titles are free to upgrade to Windows 11 24H2 (as long as their PC doesn't have any other compatibility issues that could lead to a block being put in place by Microsoft).

NetEase's big new superhero live game breaks a huge milestone with double-digit million players in just a few days' time.

It's official: Marvel Rivals is a mega-hit, and during the critical holiday spending period no less. The multiplayer free-to-play team-based shooter is essentially Marvel's answer to Overwatch, complete with unique hero synergies, iconic designs across 33 free player characters, and an ever-changing narrative centered around Marvel's wide-spanning multiverse. The game's popularity has sent social media buzzing and everyone seems to be talking about Rivals--the need for healers and Jeff the Shark, in particular.

Thanks to the colossal pull of Marvel's heroic franchises and the surprisingly layered gameplay mechanics, Rivals has attracted 10 million players across consoles and PC in just 72 hours since launch.

Video games industry expert and data analyst Joost van Dreunen has dire predictions for Ubisoft.

After a string of failed games, years of controversy, numerous creative and financial restructurings, and costly mismanagement, Ubisoft isn't in a great place right now. It's to the point where Ubisoft is said to be considering partners in an effort to buy out all remaining company stock and take the games-maker private. The idea is to go private before someone makes a hostile takeover attempt. Tencent is one such partner, and rightly so given the share position in both Ubisoft and Ubisoft's principal shareholder; Ubisoft's majority shares are in the control of the Guillemot family under a company called Guillemot Bros., of which Tencent has 49.9% stake.

New reports say that Ubisoft's shareholders are currently involved, meaning a plan could be executed in the coming months. Some industry experts like Joost van Dreunen, founder of now-absorbed analyst firm SuperData, believe that the French publisher will essentially be made private while it sells pieces of itself off.

PlayStation's new image-upscaling AI tech isn't without its flaws and limitations, and some games actually end up looking worse having utilized it.

The $700 PlayStation 5 Pro owes its high-end performance to two main upgrades: The new beefed-up GPU, and PlayStation Spectral Resolution Scaling, or PSSR. So what is PSSR? It's basically Sony's own proprietary version of NVIDIA's DLSS AI-driven upscaling technology. Sony worked with AMD to engineer custom machine learning hardware onto the PS5 Pro's SoC, and has trained PSSR's AI on its first-party games.

"And finally, we added custom hardware for machine learning, and an AI library called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution. PSSR analyzes the game's images pixel by pixel, and can add an extraordinary amount of detail which boosts the effect of resolution for the games," PS5 Pro architect Mark Cerny said in the console's technical reveal showcase.

Can you imagine Valve stepping into the console market with a SteamOS-powered device? Well, that's what the new "Valve Fremont" could be, and it would compete against PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

In a swirl of rumors over the weekend, the Valve Fremont turned up and it could be a new console that plugs into your TV, found by Redditor "Coolbho3k" who discovered a change in the Steam Deck Kernel by a Valve staffer, who was testing something called "Fremont".

Valve's purported Fremont device appeared to have an AMD "Lilac" chip, but Brad Lynch from EOZ (which makes VR straps) posted on X that Quanta Computer is manufacturing the Valve Fremont device. Brad thinks that the Lilac was the original PCB that Valve used in its first prototype of Fremont, but now has a completely different, fully finished board.

A new Nintendo job listing may give clues on what to expect from the Switch 2's storage speeds.

Nintendo's new Switch successor could use high-end micro SD storage tech to deliver better gameplay experiences. As spotted by YouTuber SuperMetalDave64, Nintendo of America is currently hiring a PCB layout engineer and they'd like the candidate to have experience with SD Express flash storage.

What's SD Express? It's a relatively new spec that allows Micro SD cards to deliver up to 985 MB/sec speeds. That's a much higher rate than the current-gen Switch, and better speeds will be instrumental in delivering the higher-resolution assets in new Switch 2 games. In February of this year, Samsung announced its line of SD Express cards that are capable of up to 800MB/sec speeds.

After a string of sales misses from its recent games lineup, it looks like Square Enix has hit it big with its latest Dragon Quest RPG.

Instead of just re-releasing older games in their original formats ad infinitum, Square Enix had the unique idea to supercharge classic RPGs with a mix of both old-school and new-school graphics. The result is a charming visual style that appeals to anyone who grew up in the 80s and 90s, the kind of warm and magical style found in Octopath Traveller. Square has turned this new reinvigorated lens to one of its best-selling franchises of all time: Dragon Quest.

Fans have showed up for the new Dragon Quest III HD-2D release en masse. The game has sold more than 2 million copies combined across PS5, Xbox Series consoles, and PC, which bodes well for Square Enix. Typically, these HD-2D projects cost less to produce and ship than big AAA projects like Final Fantasy XVI.

iFixit's storefront gets new additions and now sells OEM replacement parts for Xbox consoles.

If your Xbox console goes on the fritz, iFixit has you covered. Well that's typically the case regardless thanks to their amazing tear-down guides. But it goes double now that iFixit's store is starting to sell replacement console hardware components.

The repair gurus have added official genuine Microsoft replacement parts for Xbox Series consoles to their digital store, including the base Xbox Series S and the all-digital and disc-based Xbox Series X models.

Fortnite is expanding with a new dedicated FPS mode aimed at taking on first-person live service giants.

Fortnite, a game that has earned over $20 billion in less than 10 years, regularly tops the charts on both PC and console. It already competes with live service giants like Call of Duty, but now Fortnite is directly taking on the competition with a new FPS mode.

Fortnite's new FPS mode is called Ballistic, and it's a 5v5 team-based tactical shooter launching in early access on December 11. Ballistic is basically Epic's take on its rival's decade-spanning mega-hit, Counter-Strike--gamers are on defense or offense, and one team has to plant a "Rift Point Device" in a designated location while the other tries to stop them. Sound familiar?

The Wiiboy gets updated with a thinner design and will soon be open sourced so DIY enthusiasts can build their own.

Modders have done some amazing things with gaming tech over the years, including cramming an entire Wii console into an on-the-go handheld. We've seen a fe iterations of mini Wii systems, including the G-Boy handheld and ShankMods' PiiWii. Now we have the Wiiboy from YouTube tinkerer Ginger of Oz.

The new Wiiboy 2.0 features some upgrades over the original model, with a 480p IPS panel with bezel and a chassis that's half a millimeter thinner than the original Wiiby Color 1.0, but overall it's just another clear example as to the innovations being made in the modding and custom PCB scenes.

After a string of disappointing games, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot reiterates plans to focus on more profitable projects.

Ubisoft is under a lot of pressure right now. In a bid to stay competitive and capture more of the best-earning segments on the market, the French games-maker has spent multitudes of millions on failed game projects including XDefiant, a live service Call of Duty contender that was recently sunset by the group, who already operates the successful Rainbow Six Siege. Ubisoft has also missed the mark on other high-profile AAA game productions, including Star Wars Outlaws, a game that delivered soft sales and went under a radical re-work in an attempt to appease spurned fans.

Faced with growing costs and fiduciary duty to deliver growth to shareholders, Ubisoft has made all the usual cuts to reduce spending: Division-based layoffs, studio closures, and project cancellations like the ill-fated XDefiant. One reaction to the Outlaws reception, and the current games industry market trends, was to delay Assassin's Creed Shadows outside of the critical holiday season and into February 2025. This delay was a major hit to Ubisoft's projected earnings--the company simply expected to sell a lot of copies of AC Shadows during Christmas.

Path of Exile 2 releases into early access as a verified hit on PC, breaking more than 450,000 peak concurrent players on Steam.

The year of RPGs just keeps on giving as Grinding Gear Games today kicked of Path of Exile 2's long journey into early access. The game has been received well so far, but it's not free-to-play just yet: Users can buy early access to the game starting at $30, giving them a more direct stake in helping shape Path of Exile 2 over time.

Despite the high numbers, the launch hasn't been perfect. Massive popularity means massive strain on the servers. Path of Exile's online infrastructure buckled under the weight of interested gamers and the servers crashed throughout the day.

NetEase's new Marvel game proves there's plenty of room for competition in the hero shooter genre.

Today, Marvel Rivals enjoyed a successful global launch onto consoles and PC. The free-to-play hero shooter has exploded onto the PC market and could be a contender for another top live service game. At launch, Rivals managed to break over 440,000 concurrent users on Steam. The game is currently not loaded into the PS Store best-seller tracker so we don't know how popular the game is on PlayStation. After this major milestone is reached, one big question remains: Can NetEase and Marvel keep up this momentum with seasonal updates?

The F2P PVP hero shooter has gained significant attention for its multiverse character designs and overall monetization strategy. Rivals packs in an eclectic variety of 33 different comic heroes across a wide range of series, all of which are wrapped up in an evolving narrative-driven storyline that will expand with new seasonal updates. If done right, Marvel could have its own Overwatch-Fortnite hybrid.

A new report from Reuters has claimed Ubisoft Entertainment SA is currently engaging in close discussions with Tencent on organizing a possible buyout of Ubisoft, the development studio behind popular video game franchise Assassin's Creed.

Reuters cites two people familiar with the matter who spoke to the publication on the condition of anonymity, and according to these sources, Ubisoft is attempting to initiate a buyout but keep the majority of control in the hands of the Guillemot family, currently the largest and founding shareholder. According to Reuters, the Guillemot family has been in talks with Tencent about the buyout, which currently owns a 10% stake in Ubisoft.

Reuters reports Tencent has yet to decide on if it will greenlight the buyout, as Tencent reportedly wants a greater say in future decisions made by Ubisoft's board, along with a cash flow distribution in return for financing the deal. The publication notes that discussions between Ubisoft and Tencent are ongoing as both parties want to prevent Ubisoft from suffering from a hostile takeover by outside investors. One of the sources told Reuters that Tencent's plan is to wait for the Guillemot family to agree to the terms of its current deal.

NVIDIA has released GeForce Game Ready Driver 566.36, which adds day-one support to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - which is available to play right now in early access for those who have bought the Digital Premium Edition. It also adds day support to the highly anticipated action RPG Path of Exile 2 and Marvel Rivals' official launch.

Marvel Rivals is a new free-to-play hero shooter with a cast of some of the most iconic superheroes ever created, and it features support for DLSS 3 Frame Generation as seen in the trailer above. The latest driver also adds support to some major updates for existing titles. There's Forza Motorsport, which is getting immersive in-race Ray-Traced Global lumination in its next update. Also, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is adding DLSS 3 Frame Generation in its next update, which will help boost performance for GeForce RTX 40 Series owners.

Outside of game support, the latest GeForce Game Ready Driver 566.36 is also the first to include the new NVIDIA App, which has exited beta and replaced GeForce Experience as the main software tool for GeForce customization.

Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene, the creator of PUBG, has announced multiple new projects, with his main new title being a survival game called Prologue: Go Wayback! which launches into early access on Steam in 2025.

Prologue: Go Wayback! is explained as a "single-player open world emergent game within the survival genre" that will be available on Steam in early access form in Q2 2025, however, the developer teases that a "series of playtests" will begin before the early access launch.

Greene describes Prologue as a survival experience, and a "prototype of an idea" that will use the early access version to build upon, turning it into a full product. Prologue: Go Wayback! will see gamers playing on a new map, each and every time they play the game. Greene added: "We have a simple survival loop. Get from one side of the map to the other side of the map with some difficult weather on the way".

The Lenovo Legion Go was designed as a premium PC gaming handheld with detachable controllers, a sizeable high-refresh-rate display, the latest AMD hardware, and fast storage and memory. With new renders of a new Lenovo Legion Go S gaming handheld surfacing at Windows Central, Lenovo plans to release a more affordable refresh very soon.

According to Videocardz, the handheld uses AMD's new Ryzen Z2 platform. However, the more entry-level Ryzen Z2G will pair 8 Zen 3+ CPU Cores with 12 RDNA2 Compute Units via integrated Radeon 680M graphics. It won't be a Hawk Point or Strix Point device; it'll be a blast from the part - Rembrandt. This decision looks to have been made to help keep the cost down.

In fact, with a rumored price point as low as $399, it could give Valve's Steam Deck a run for its money as one of the most affordable PC gaming handhelds on the market.

Amazon is set to launch its video game-inspired anthology series on Prime Video on December 10, and to increase hype for the show, the company is handing out free games.

Secret Level, the new 15-episode-long anthology series from the team behind Love, Death and Robots, will cover legendary video game characters that have been pulled from popular franchises. Notably, the series will feature original stories set in within the worlds of the characters, and it will include adaptations from popular franchises such as God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, Dungeons and Dragons, Mega Man, Pac-Man, Concord, and others.

The new anthology features a star-studded cast, with some of the names attached to the project including "Arnold Schwarzenegger ("The Terminator" Franchise), Kevin Hart ("Jumanji"), and Keanu Reeves ("John Wick"), among others. As for the free games, Amazon is offering a selection of free games for Prime members, with many of the games inspired by episodes in the TV show. Below is a full list of all the free games, along with a code for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II in the Amazon Games App, becoming available on December 12.

Almost every week there is a new Nintendo Switch 2 rumor as fans of the extremely popular Nintendo Switch wait patiently for any news of the successor console.

The latest in the Nintendo Switch 2 rumor mill comes from Juan A. Fonesca at Nintenduo, who claims that members of at least six development studios have confirmed to him that titles currently in development are scheduled to launch for Nintendo's next-generation platform between June and July next year. If this is true, that means Nintendo's next-generation console, presumably called the Nintendo Switch 2, will have already been released, or these games will be released alongside it.

Additionally, Nintenduo commented on the price for the rumored console, stating it would be anywhere between 400 and 500 Euros, making it around $419 to $524 US. As for what is officially known about Switch 2, Nintendo confirmed during its financial report that it will continue with the current Nintendo Switch until the end of the financial year, April 2025. This means that it's extremely unlikely Nintendo will launch a new console before March next year. However, that doesn't mean Nintendo won't announce a new console this fiscal year.

Famed video game director Hidetaka Miyazaki has sat down for an interview with Game Watch, where he revealed FromSoftware is currently working on multiple projects.

The interview was translated, and it revealed the studio is handling "multiple projects" that cover a "wide range of genres". Miyazaki revealed that not all of the titles are under his direction, and that some are "handled by other people". Additionally, the video game director teased that a new future is ahead of FromSoftware through these titles, so much so that Miyazaki believes, "I think we'll be able to show you a new FromSoftware in many different ways".

Miyazaki didn't reveal what the studio is working on specifically or any details about any of the titles currently in development. However, fans speculate the next game to come out of FromSoftware will be an Armored Core title, which would be helmed by Miyazaki. Unfortunately, that is just wishful speculation at the moment, as nothing has been confirmed. As for FromSoftware, the Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree was nominated for Game of the Year 2024 by the Game Awards, making it the first DLC for a game to be in the running for Game of the Year.