Gaming - Page 201

A former boss of PlayStation has given a small bleak detail into the future of gaming consoles, with the former PlayStation boss saying consoles may have reached their peak when it comes to performance.

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Shawn Layden was asked about the current state of the gaming industry, along with what he thinks the future will look like for consoles and how the war between PlayStation and Xbox will continue. According to Layden, to properly evaluate the future, we must look at the past. The jump between the PS1 and PS2 was dramatic in terms of graphics fidelity.

The same goes for the jump between the PS2 and the PS3. However, from PS3 to PS4, the performance increase wasn't as noticeable as previous generations. Layden says we are reaching the end specifications for a console, and we will never see a jump in performance equivalent to the PS1 to the PS2. Additionally, Layden points out that there is very little difference between the hardware in both PlayStation and Xbox consoles, as AMD powers both. Layden suggests this could be the end of the console war between both platforms and provides the example of Betamax vs the VHS format, where Sony eventually caved to the VHS format as the industry standard.

Ubisoft is making more deep cuts to reduce spending, this time leading to layoffs of over 200 people.

Yesterday, Ubisoft announced it was sunsetting its failed first-person shooter XDefiant. The game is effectively locked off from access, and will be taken offline in June 2025. The decision was a simple one to make: XDefiant wasn't profitable, and showed no signs of becoming profitable as soon as Ubisoft would've hoped. Rather than keep paying for upkeep, maintenance, and further content production, Ubisoft decided to freeze XDefiant and essentially start winding it down.

The game cancellation wasn't the only bad news from yesterday's announcement. Ubisoft is also closing down two studios in this cost-cutting pass. Production groups in San Francisco, USA and Osaka, Japan have been closed and the layoffs are expected to affect around 277, Game File's Stephen Totilo reports.

Recently, Blizzard launched Warcraft I: Remastered and Warcraft II: Remastered, which updates the visuals of these iconic real-time strategy games alongside other improvements as part of the Warcraft franchise's 30th anniversary celebrations. With that, the original versions of these games are being delisted from services like GOG.

GOG, a division of CD Projekt Red, is committed to game preservation and ensuring classic games are not only available to purchase but also run on modern hardware. For Warcraft I and Warcraft II, the team at GOG enhanced these titles with multiplayer LAN support and improved graphics features like antialiasing and anisotropic filtering.

At Blizzard's request, both titles will be delisted from GOG on December 13. However, they will live on thanks to the GOG Preservation Program. If you want to pick these DRM-free versions, you can do so with the 'MakeWarcraftLiveForever' discount code.

MSI has officially launched its second-generation PC gaming handhelds, the new MSI Claw 8 AI+ and MSI Claw 7 AI+ (a refresh of the first-gen Claw 7 with the latest Intel Lunar Lake APU). MSI is touting outstanding gaming performance and efficiency, and the flagship Claw 8's look is inspired by 'wind-sculpted desert rocks.'

The MSI Claw 7 AI+ sports an all-black design with the same overall shape and button layout. The naming refers to the screen sizes of each mode, with the MSI Claw 8 AI+ sporting an 8-inch 1080p 120 Hz VRR IPS display and the MSI Claw 7 AI+ featuring a 7-inch 1080p 120 Hz VRR IPS display.

The big difference between these and other PC gaming handhelds running Windows 11 is that both Claw devices are powered by the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor with integrated Arc 'Battlemage' graphics. MSI says you're looking at 20% more performance than the competition, which we assume is the ROG Ally X from ASUS. Both also feature 32GB of memory, which is impressive.

Bethesda and Machine Games have released the PC hardware specs and requirements for the highly anticipated Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which is set to launch on December 9. If you plan on picking this up or jumping in via PC Game Pass, fair warning: you'll need a pretty powerful PC to don the iconic fedora of one of cinema's greatest heroes.

On PC, the game will feature a 'Full Ray Tracing Mode' (which looks to be arriving in a post-launch update), ala Alan Wake II, Black Myth: Wukonh, Cyberpunk 2077, and NVIDIA's own Portal with RTX. According to the PC specs for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, you'll need a GeForce RTX 4090 with DLSS 3 and Frame Generation enabled to enjoy the game's 'Full Ray Tracing' or path tracing mode at 4K 60 FPS.

But what about no ray tracing? You're still looking at a game that will be very demanding. The recommended GPU for 1440p 60 FPS without RT is a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or a Radeon RX 7700 XT. To play the game at 1080p with 'Low' settings, you'll need a GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER.

Ubisoft has officially sunset XDefiant, a new free-to-play shooter that failed to meet internal expectations.

The reports were right: Ubisoft's FPS XDefiant was indeed struggling, and Ubisoft has ultimately made the decision to pull the plug on the game. The game is now in its winding down phase. XDefiant is no longer available to download, and gamers can't make new user registrations or purchase items. The servers will remain online until June 2025, though, which essentially transforms the game into a big private beta.

"Thank you for your incredible support and dedication to XDEFIANT. We regret to inform you that we are initiating the sunset process starting today, December 3, 2024.

Hidetaka Miyazaki, known colloquially as the lord of pain, says fans can look forward to a "new" FromSoftware when it comes to the upcoming slate of projects from the Japanese games-maker.

Elden Ring was far and away FromSoftware's best-selling game. The RPG was a veritable sensation when it released in 2022, taking over gaming and racking up multiple millions of sales. As of June 2024, Elden Ring has sold over 25 million copies worldwide, sparked in part by the new mega-popular Shadow of the Erdtree expansion (which also went on to sell 5 million copies).

Given the game's huge success, it makes sense to consider a sequel. Elden Ring was a big deal for everyone involved, including publisher Bandai Namco, FromSoftware, and the developer's parent company, Kadokawa. Side note: Sony is said to be discussing a potential buyout of Kadokawa, which would arm the tech giant with a multitude of manga and anime segments alongside the Dark Souls and Elden Ring developer, FromSoftware.

Intel XeSS, or Xe Super Sampling, is the company's answer to NVIDIA's DLSS and AMD's FSR. However, as it utilizes the AI hardware and XMX Engines found in all Arc Graphics products, it's often seen as a better solution than FSR for maintaining image quality. Alongside Intel announcing its first next-gen Battlemage GPU with the new Intel Arc B580 today, the company has also lifted the lid on Intel XeSS 2. And yes, it includes frame generation.

When NVIDIA launched DLSS 3 Frame Generation alongside the GeForce RTX 40 Series, it took a minute or two to understand what was happening. XeSS 2 is similar in that it combines three bits of technology - XeSS Super Resolution, XeSS-FG Frame Generation, and XeLL Low Latency. Super Resolution does the AI upscaling. Frame Generation leverages AI-powered 'Optical Flow Reprojection' and other game data to create a new frame. XeLL dramatically lowers system latency to improve responsiveness.

What does that mean? Well, it transforms F1 24's native 1440p Ultra performance on the Intel Arc B580 from 48 FPS with an overall latency of 57ms to 152 FPS with an overall latency of 28ms.

Steam's hardware survey for November 2024 has arrived and there's been quite a surge in popularity for Windows 11.

Valve breaks down all manner of stats as part of the monthly survey, and in this case, in the operating system category, Windows 11 has risen by the largest amount we can recall. As far as we're aware, the biggest previous rise was 3.4% which happened in the August 2024 survey. (Not counting months where weirdness has impacted the survey in some way, skewing some stats badly).

In November, Windows 11 rose by 4.18%, and now sits on 52.98%, with Windows 10 falling by almost the same amount - slightly less at 4.15% - to leave the older OS on 43.31%.

The MSI Claw 8 AI+ is the company's second portable PC gaming handheld built on Intel hardware running Windows 11. It will be the first to use Intel's Lunar Lake architecture with next-gen Intel Arc 140V graphics in the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor. This is the follow-up to 2024's MSI Claw 7, which was powered by Meteor Lake.

The device is set to launch soon and make an appearance at CES 2025. Still, ahead of its debut, we've already got retail listings at Amazon and ExcaliberPC - listings that give us the full specs and pricing on the flagship MSI Claw 8 AI+ handheld, which will cost $100 more than the ROG Ally X refresh from ASUS.

Outside of the processor, the new flagship gaming handheld from MSI features a larger 8-inch 1080p display with a 120 Hz refresh rate, 32 GB of LPDDR5X-8533MHz memory, 1TB of internal PCIe NVMe SSD storage, a massive 80 WHr battery, and a $899 USD price tag. MSI also plans to launch an MSI Claw 7 AI+ with a smaller 7-inch display for $799.

SEGA's ill-fated FPS game Hyenas was wiped out last year, and new investor reports give us an idea of the publisher's thought process behind the game's cancellation.

A bit ago, SEGA, the house of Sonic, wanted to make a live service first-person shooter. The project was called Hyenas, and it was in development at its European subsidiary Creative Assembly. Hyenas was to be the budding fruit of a nascent new strategy from SEGA--one called Super Games, which took aim at online-driven experiences that lasted for multiple years.Unfortunately, the project was cancelled and Hyenas was shut down before it even launched. Now we know why SEGA pulled the plug.

In a word, it comes down to the same that's wracked the games industry over the last two years: Cost. Live games are expensive in all aspects. SEGA should know--it runs and operates Phantasy Star Online 2, a successful live game.

Insomniac's original mega-hit Spider-Man game managed to make nearly $4 billion in sales revenue in about two years after release.

Sony's first Spider-Man game was apparently an extremely profitable game. According to a LinkedIn page for a Sony Interactive Entertainment marketing manager, the Spider-Man game pulled in $3.8 billion revenue. Leaked data from PlayStation's internal files show that Spider-Man had a budget of around $90 million, but it's unclear whether or not this includes marketing--video game budgets often balloon upwards like this.

The snippet also mentions that Spider-Man had sold 20 million game copies worldwide. The sales volume milestone was found in 2020. Also bear in mind that Sony did bundle the original Spider-Man game with PlayStation 4 consoles, so that will boost the revenue well past the original $59.99 MSRP of the game itself.

SEGA reiterates its new mid-term plans for games development and IP expansion, including its still-in-development Super Game initiative.

Japanese games publisher SEGA has been planning an interesting new strategy for a while now. The company wants to get into live service games and put together a new umbrella term for its idea--"Super Game," a take on mega-hit live service games that rule gaming today. And SEGA happens to have one such game under its wing with Phantasy Star Online. This plan was pared back with the cancellation of Hyenas, a shooter game from Creative Assembly.

A new financial snippet from SEGA's latest annual report shows how the publisher is treating its Super Game strategy in the years ahead. SEGA will allocate over 30 billion yen, or about $200 milion in today's exchange rates, to fund Super Games across the next mid-term range of 3 years.

A topic like the 'greatest gaming comeback ever' is always going to be arguable and subjective, but you can't argue with the eligibility of No Man's Sky as a contender for this title - a status which has now been cemented by the views of Steam gamers.

As highlighted by Sean Murray, the founder of Hello Games, on X, the rating for 'All Reviews' as scored by the denizens of Steam has just changed to 'Very Positive.'

As Wccftech, which spotted this, points out, that's a long way from the initial reception way back in 2016, where No Man's Sky got some pretty dire feedback from the original players of the game. It was a long time that it was stuck at a 'Mixed' rating, too, as even when more positive reviews started to weigh in, there was a whole lot of negative historical feedback holding the game back on Steam.

Tencent has been caught in hot water after Polaris Quest unveiled "Light of Motiram," a new open-world game headed to PC that appears to be directly inspired - copied - from Guerilla Games' Horizon Zero Dawn.

The announcement came with official listings for the title on both Steam and the Epic Games Store. However, no official release date was revealed. Polaris Quest is a subsidiary of Tencent Games, and according to the announcement and the game's description, Light of Motiram is an open-world survival crafting game that takes players to a world overrun by colossal machines, and judging by what can be seen during the trailer, along with all of the provided images in each of the storefront listings, it's safe to say Light of Motiram is HEAVILY inspired by Sony's Horizon Zero Dawn.

The similarities are close, even down to the font used for the title of Light of Motiram, that I personally believe Sony could file a lawsuit against the title's release, similar to how Nintendo is suing the creators of Palworld for what Nintendo believes is IP infringement. Notably, Tencent and Polaris Quest have now been caught in an online barrage of criticism, with many gamers claiming the company has "ripped off" Zero Dawn and Forbidden West while also copying mechanics from Pocketpair's Palworld. Below are screenshots and more GIFs of Light of Motiram, and by those, you can make your own mind up if Light of Motiram is a copy of Guerilla Games' hit franchise.

Assassin's Creed Shadows has had one of if not the most tumultuous lead ups to release out of the entire Assassin's Creed franchise, and now we have discovered that half of the team working on the project has never made a game before.

The news comes from legendary Assassin's Creed developer Marc-Alexis Côté who is known for his work on previous Assassin's Creed titles and is the current Vice President Executive Producer for the entire Assassin's Creed franchise. Marc-Alexis Côté spoke at the External Development Summit 2024, where he revealed that since the pandemic, Ubisoft has adopted a lot of junior developers, saying, "Probably half the team that's building Assassin's Creed is building a game for the first time."

As for other Shadows news, Insider Gaming has heard that Ubisoft will begin sending out preview/review copies of Assassin's Creed Shadows mid-Janaury, specifically the week of the 13th. Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson wrote that this is an indicator that Ubisoft is on track for the February 14 launch of Shadows, following the delay of the title due to mounting criticism over artistic choices and further polishing before release.

For years, Nintendo fans and gamers have been asking themselves (and others): When will the Nintendo Switch 2 get its big reveal, and when will it launch? The latest rumor from a credible source on the Weibo forum points to an announcement that could be right around the corner - with a release to follow soon after.

Although the source has accurately leaked or confirmed the contents of multiple Nintendo Direct streams in the past, at this point, anything related to the Nintendo Switch 2 release should be taken with a big ol' grain of salt. That said, we'd love for this one to be true.

And that's because the source of the rumor claims that the Nintendo Switch 2 will get its big reveal sometime in January 2025, with a global launch or release sometime in March 2025. This would put the Nintendo Switch 2's release much sooner than many expect, with analysts and insiders currently pegging a second-half-of-2025 release for the long-awaited console.

NVIDIA's GeForce NOW Black Friday Deal is now on, with 50% off the first three months of new GeForce NOW Ultimate and Performance memberships. Ultimate subscribers get access to a GeForce RTX 4080 GPU and can stream their games up to 4K at 120 FPS or 1080p at 240 FPS. Performance tier members can stream at up to 1440p at 60 FPS.

Both plans fall under the new rules limiting the monthly game time GeForce NOW subscribers can access to 100 hours. NVIDIA notes that this time limit covers 94% or most of its users, and those exceeding the 100-hour allotment can continue to game on the 'free' tier or pay extra. This has been widely viewed as a controversial change to GeForce NOW's operation, so it's worth reiterating here.

Back to the Black Friday Deal: In addition to the 50% off GeForce NOW Ultimate and Performance memberships for new users, SteelSeries is offering a 30% discount to members (via the GeForce NOW rewards program) on its Stratus+ and Nimbus+ controllers. These cloud-ready controllers can be paired with any Android or iOS device running GeForce NOW.

Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is widely considered one the best entries the long-running franchise has seen in years, from its campaign to its competitive multiplayer modes and the all-new zombies action. And now we can add 'biggest Call of Duty ever' to its accolades, with Activision announcing that Black Ops 6 has had the biggest 'first 30 days' of any CoD.

"In the first 30 days from launch, together you made Black Ops 6 the biggest Call of Duty ever," Activision's post reads. Regarding three key metrics: total players, the number of hours played, and the number of multiplayer matches, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 sits on top of the Call of Duty mountain.

However, things aren't great for all Black Ops 6 and Warzone players, as Activision's RICOCHET Anti-Cheat initiative, which combats Call of Duty cheaters, is working overtime.

There was a time when every major publisher decided that its PC releases would require signing into and using a custom launcher, which would still be required even if you purchased and wanted to play a game on Steam or the Epic Games Store.

Outside of having more things minimized to your system tray, additional launchers are often buggy and bloated - case in point: the 2K Games launcher.

Well, there's good news: 2K Games has announced that its launcher "has been removed from every game that used it on Epic and Steam," meaning you can play games like Bioshock Remastered, Bioshock 2 Remastered, Bioshock Infinite, The Quarry, the Mafia Trilogy Definitive Edition games, and Marvel's Midnight Suns without having to go through the 2K Launcher.