Gaming - Page 228

Black Myth: Wukong has catalyzed PlayStation 5 console sales in China, new reports from Bloomberg indicate.

Game Science's legend-infused action RPG Black Myth: Wukong is taking the world by storm, especially in China, where it has become a smash hit. The game is now the second most-played Steam game of all time in terms of peak concurrent users, with over 2.3 million users logged in and playing on Valve's PC storefront client. The Monkey King has also conquered the top-selling and most-played charts, as per official data from Valve. Note that this does not include sales made on Tencent's domestic WeGame store.

Black Myth: Wukong's meteoric rise isn't just limited to PC, however. The game is also significantly boosting PlayStation 5 sales in China, which bodes well for Sony Interactive Entertainment. Bloomberg reports that PS5 sales have more than doubled on Alibaba's Tabao e-commerce storefront in the week of the game's launch. This apparently is a rare occurrence for the PS5 in the overseas region, which is typically dominated by free-to-play mobile games.

The new Budokai Tenkaichi game will let players create customized matches and up characters to make their own saga battles.

Dragonball: Sparking! ZERO, aka Budokai Tenkaichi 4, will delve into the core spirit of Dragonball Super's hijinks. Have you ever wanted to have SS2 Goku face off against Majin Buu, or maybe SSG Goku take on an ultra-powerful Frieza? The game's new Custom Battle mode will let you do just that.

The mode was detailed in a Gamescom 2024 livestream, offering a glimpse of some pretty awesome-sounding mechanics. Not only will players be able to customize their battles, but they can share them with others online.

Elden Ring's latest Shadow of the Erdtree expansion has been a mega-hit for Bandai Namco, accounting for over half of the company's Q1 game sales volume.

This month, Bandai Namco released its Q1 FY25 results with flat operating profits, namely due to the amortization of development costs associated with specific games. But Elden Ring's new Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has done wonders for the publisher, selling more than 5 million copies in just 3 days' time.

"Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree got off to a good start and contributed greatly to our business performance," Bandai Namco said in a Q&A with investors.

A new Mafia game was announced at Gamescom 2024, and it takes place in Sicily during the early 20th century.

2K Games and Hangar 13 made a surprise reveal at Gamescom with Mafia: The Old Country, a prequel to the best-selling trilogy of games set in San Celeste, Sicily, that will chronicle the origins of organized crime.

The Old Country was highlighted with a breathtaking in-engine cinematic trailer that reflected Hangar 13's impressive attention to detail and high quality visuals, and while the footage was pre-rendered, it gives us a tantalizing first look at what to expect from the final game's cutscenes.

Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer reiterates that Microsoft expects big returns on the company's investments into gaming, which have reached $77.5 billion worth of acquisitions in the last 4 years.

The FTC v Microsoft trial in 2023 revealed a lot of interesting information about Xbox. One of the things that stood out the most was a frank explanation from Xbox CEO Phil Spencer about his responsibility to deliver continued gains and profits to Microsoft. "There's no part of our business where I get to lose money over time. The overall part of our business of gaming has to be a profitable, growing part of our business," Spencer said during the June 2023 evidentiary hearing.

Over the past 4 years, Microsoft has made incredible investments into gaming, first with its $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax Media in 2021, and then with the $70 billion buyout of service titan Activision Blizzard King in 2023. Microsoft's CFO Amy Hood, CEO Satya Nadella, and the board of directors have high expectations for Xbox as a result.

Genshin Impact, one of the most popular free-to-play games on the market today, is finally coming to Xbox.

miHoYo's highly profitable live service game Genshin Impact is making its way to Xbox platforms this November, Microsoft announced at Gamescom 2024. The F2P sensation will cross over to Xbox Series X/S consoles, complete with cloud streaming availability across consoles, PC, and mobile, and Xbox Game Pass subscribers will get some extra bonuses and rewards along the way.

"I was especially excited to announce that Genshin Impact is coming to Xbox. There's some pretty cool Game Pass rewards that are going to be part of that, there's going to be full cross-progression, and it's also going to be on cloud," Xbox president Sarah Bond said during an interview at Gamescom.

Did Xbox Gaming CEO Phil Spencer lie about Indiana Jones coming to PlayStation 5? No, not technically.

Back in February 2024, Xbox made a controversial decision to bring four of its first-party Xbox games over to PlayStation and Nintendo platforms. It was the first time Microsoft had broken exclusivity with key first-party games that were specifically designed to launch on Microsoft platforms (Xbox consoles and Windows PCs). But as time as proven, it wouldn't be the last.

Xbox management made the announcement through a roundtable interview with executives Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, and Matt Booty. In that video, Xbox's CEO Phil Spencer was asked point blank if Starfield and the new Indiana Jones and the Great Circle were among those four games that were breaking exclusivity. Spencer said that no, Starfield and Indiana Jones were not among them.

Razer and Wooting have certainly stirred up the competitive shooter sector of gaming with new keyboard technology that has now been banned by Valve.

For those that don't know, the above video is a great short explanation of the new technology called Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions (SOCD). Razer added the new feature to its range of Huntsman V3 Pro keyboards last month, which was followed by an update by Wooting. Razer calls its technology Snap Tap, while Wooting calls its technology Snappy Tappy. Use of either of these technologies in Counter-Strike 2 will result in the player being kicked from the match.

At the moment, no account ban appears to be place for violating the rules. It's simply just a match kick. So what does SOCD do? In short, the feature enables players to automate switching strafe directions, which circumvents the skill that is learned by FPS players where switching strafe directions takes skill. For example, to switch strafe directions a player must fully release one key before pressing the other. If both keys are pressed the movement inputs cancel each other out, resulting the character standing still.

From what we can tell, Black State is a new action game from Motion Blur that looks to take inspiration from cinematic Hideo Kojima games like Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding. How it plays remains to be seen, and there's no release date. However, with NVIDIA dropping a new 'RTX Announce' trailer for the game - we can safely say that visually, it's stunning.

Seriously, a lot of the environment shots in this trailer are damn near photorealistic, with lighting, reflections, and detail that look like real-world photography. There aren't any characters in the trailer; it simply showcases indoor and outdoor locations like a science lab, museum, and cargo ship.

Unless someone told you it was a game, you'd think you were looking at real-life footage or high-end CGI for a film. Below are some of the most stunning examples.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard from BioWare and Avowed from Obsidian Entertainment are two big single-player RPGs from two celebrated developers on the horizon. As part of its Gamescom announcements, where NVIDIA announced no less than 20 new games that will support DLSS and other RTX technologies, we got confirmation that these two highly anticipated RPGs are launching with Ray Tracing, DLSS 3 Frame Generation, and Reflex support.

The good news is that we got 'RTX Announcement' trailers for both titles, showcasing these games with full, maxed-out ray-traced visuals and performance-boosting DLSS 3 enabled. Starting with Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which you can see above, the ray tracing looks impressive, adding depth and detail to the game's environments. From rain-soaked streets to dimly lit caves, it will look fantastic running on a GeForce RTX 40 Series GPU.

Performance-wise, with DLSS 3 enabled, the frame rate hits triple digits, hovering at around 140-170 FPS during action-heavy sequences with all sorts of spells and attacks going off. There's no word on what GPU we're seeing; odds are that as it's 4K footage, it's running on a GeForce RTX 4090.

The latest GeForce Game Ready 560.94 WHQL driver is a big one for PC gamers. It's an 'install this one as soon as possible' situation as it adds day-one support for some massive AAA PC releases, all launching with RTX technologies.

There's Black Myth: Wukong with Full Ray Tracing and DLSS 3 support, a game currently breaking records on Steam as one of the biggest single-player games ever. Check out the RTX trailer above to see the difference the advanced visuals bring to the game. Then there's Star Wars Outlaws, the first open-world game set in the iconic universe, featuring Ray Tracing, DLSS 3.5, and Reflex.

Then there's support for the surprise Final Fantasy XVI Demo, which is finally coming to PC - it arrives with DLSS 3, DLAA, and Reflex. And it doesn't stop there, as the latest driver also supports Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and the new multiplayer PlayStation hero shooter Concord.

Overwatch 2 Season 12 is now here, with the introduction of a new support hero called Juno, two new maps, and a new game mode called Clash. Check out the trailer below:

Overwatch 2's new support hero is Juno, who is a new space cadet support character with a burst-fire primary weapon called the Mediblaster, which heals teammates and damages enemies, with a secondary Pulsar Torpedoes that lock onto allies and enemies, healing your teammates and damaging your enemies. Very cool.

The passive ability with Juno comes in the form of her Martial Overboots, which allow the space cadet to double jump and then hover in the air like she's kind of (but not fully) flying. The passive ability gels beautifully with Glide Boost, an ability that lets Juno glide above and around the battle horizontally.

Funcom dropped a huge 5-minute gameplay trailer for its new Dune Awakening MMORPG, complete with info on the upcoming open beta.

Dune: Awakening is shaping up to be one of the more interesting MMOs on the horizon. Set in Frank Herbert's landmark sci-fi universe, the game takes place during an alternate timeline without Paul Atreide's bloody intergalactic jihad. Instead, players will take on the role of a survivor who's free to forge their own path on the deadly desert planet of Arrakis.

The gameplay footage showed everything from guild interactions, player discovery and exploration in cities across Arrakis, as well as frenetic combat complete with sniper rifles, rockets, and vehicles, and even how the ornithopter traverses the verticality of the skies of Arrakis. The open beta is set for early 2025, and Awakening is also coming to PlayStation and Xbox, but no date has been announced for those platforms just yet.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the latest game from Machine Games, the talented studio behind the modern Wolfenstein reboot and reimagining. Developed in partnership with Bethesda Game Studios and veteran game director Todd Howard (The Elder Scrolls, Fallout), it's one of the biggest first-party Xbox releases on track for a holiday 2024 launch.

As part of Gamescom, we got an updated look at globe-trotting gameplay, including action, puzzles, and more. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is shaping up to be the sort of cinematic action adventure that is sorely missing from the Xbox lineup. Tech-wise, the game will be running on the latest version of id Software's id Tech engine, with NVIDIA confirming that the game will launch with a 'Full Ray Tracing' mode and DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction.

Indy's latest adventure joins Black Myth: Wukong and Star War Outlaws as a game that will push PC visuals with cutting-edge effects. 'Full Ray Tracing' or Path Tracing involves using RT for in-game shadows, reflections, lighting, and global illumination. The results will be stunning, as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a massive AAA release.

It's official: Starfield is finally getting a land vehicle in one of the most important updates that Bethesda has ever released for the game.

Starfield is about to get a whole new lease on life. Today Bethesda announced the REV-8, an interstellar dune buggy rover that can zoom at high speeds across planet surfaces. Gone are the days of legging it across biomes and moons, and jet-packing in between to break up the monotony. Now exploration is about to get much, much more enjoyable.

The REV-8 features both first-person and third-person views, similar to Grand Theft Auto, and it's coming to Starfield later today with a free update. It features nitro boosts, thrusters to minimize impact damage, and even comes equipped with explosive rockets that can fire at enemies.

BREAKING: Microsoft today announced the release date for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and also confirmed some recent reports of the game breaking platform exclusivity.

It's official: Bethesda's new Indiana Jones game is coming to PlayStation 5. Today at Opening Night Live, Bethesda and Microsoft revealed that Indy's new swashbuckling adventure will launch on PS5 in Spring 2025.

This confirms reports from The Verge's Tom Warren from February 2024 which said that both Indiana Jones and Starfield could arrive on PlayStation platforms, and more recent reports from Nate The Hate, who gave a more in-depth report that said Indy would launch on PS5 in early 2025.

There's a new Dying Light game on the horizons, but it's a smaller-scale standalone experience starring Dying Light 1's Kyle Crane.

Techland's new Dying Light game is called The Beast, and it's a little bit like Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. It doesn't require Dying Light 2 or even Dying Light 1 in order to play, but gamers who bought the Dying Light 2 ultimate edition will be able to play The Beast at no additional cost.

The Beast takes place in a "tightly-crafted rural region" and is built on Dying Light 2's engine, complete with four-player co-op play and weapons like bows and throwing knives. There's also vehicles, too.

Gearbox and 2K Games officially announce Borderlands 4 with a quick teaser trailer.

Borderlands 4 is coming in 2025, Gearbox today revealed at the Opening Night Live stream at Gamescom. Not much is known about the new project other than snippets of info gleaned in the trailer, like the moon of Elpis crash-landing on a new planet. Gearbox has yet to publish official press release details for the game, and apparently there's a wishlist page that will go live soon, but we did get a small bit of info from the trailer that confirmed Borderlands 4 will take players to a brand new intergalactic planet.

"In this next installment of the definitive looter shooter, players will assume the role of a legendary Vault Hunter as they blast their way through hordes of enemies in search of new treasures to loot on an all-new planet."

Microsoft today updated gamers on what to expect with its new Xbox Game Pass Standard tier.

A bit ago, Microsoft raised the price of its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to $19.99/month while simultaneously removing its $9.99/month Console tier. As it currently stands, console gamers cannot actually subscribe to a Game Pass tier that offers pooled access to hundreds of games outside of Ultimate.

That's going to change soon with the introduction of Xbox Game Pass Standard. The Standard tier will replace the Console tier and cost +50% more than its predecessor while offering the added bonus of online multiplayer. Microsoft still doesn't have an exact launch date for Standard, but the tier is currently being tested in the Xbox Insiders program.

Chinese action RPG Black Myth: Wukong has conquered Steam, becoming the most-played singleplayer game ever on the platform in just one day of release.

Black Myth: Wukong is the latest gaming craze, and has the might of China's 668 million strong playerbase behind it. Game Science's legend-based action RPG has hit an astronomical 2 million+ players in a 24-hour period. This makes Black Myth: Wukong the most-played singleplayer game in the history of Steam. And it's actually now #3 on the list of most-played games by all-time peak players, with PUBG at #1 and Palworld at #2.

As per Steam's official charts, Chinese RPG is currently the #1 top selling and #1 most played game on Steam, and based on numbers from Valve, Black Myth: Wukong's players made up around 6.3% of total players on Steam during the high point of August 19, 2024.