Gaming - Page 249

Nintendo's next-generation Switch 2 -- or a better name, the Super Switch -- will be clocked "crazy, crazy low" in handheld mode according to the latest leaks.

We know that Nintendo's next-gen Switch 2 is on the way, with a new Tegra SoC that has a GPU based on mostly NVIDIA's previous-gen Ampere GPU architecture, but borrows some tricks from current-gen Ada Lovelace, all on-the-go.

In a new video from Moore's Law is Dead, the topic of Nintendo's new Switch 2 is bought up and discussed. MLID says that we can expect "crazy, crazy low" clocks for the Switch 2 in handheld mode, far lower than 800MHz according to his sources. But when it's docked, clock speeds will reportedly 3x and the gaming experience will be amplified greatly.

Alan Wake 2 has yet to turn a profit on all platforms, game developer Remedy has confirmed.

After more than a decade of simmering ideas on a back burner, Remedy finally got their chance to make Alan Wake 2 when they purchased the IP and publishing rights to the series from Microsoft. Instead of self-funding the game, Remedy took a lucrative deal with Epic Games. The Fortnite-maker would fund development and handle publishing, and in exchange, Alan Wake 2 would launch on the Epic Store, not on Steam. It would also be digital-only on consoles.

It appears these business decisions have impacted sales of the game. Alan Wake 2 has yet to trigger royalty payments to Remedy, meaning the game isn't yet profitable...although it could be soon. Remedy says that Alan Wake 2 has "already recouped a significant part of the investments made by Epic Games Publishing," and the firm says the game has sold 1.3 million units as of February 2024.

Following the release of Alan Wake 2, Tencent has nearly tripled its investment into Remedy Entertainment.

Chinese games giant Tencent now owns 14.8% of Remedy, the developer of Alan Wake, Control, and the Max Payne games. This is a 289% increase from Tencent's previous ownership of just 3.8% of Remedy's shares.

Remedy has partnered with Tencent on a new free-to-play game codenamed Kestrel, which is a reboot from its previous game, codenamed Vanguard. Kestrel is currently in concept phases of development. Tencent's new share buy-up comes months after Remedy announced the reboot.

Nintendo's new Switch 2 console is expected to have magnetic joycons that snap on and off of the main tablet, new reports indicate.

Not even Nintendo's hardware partners know what its new system looks like. Ever-commited to secrecy, Nintendo has reportedly found a unique way to demo its next-gen Switch console: Through touch and nothing else.

Unnamed manufacturer sources tell Spanish gaming site Vandal about the strange meet-up with Nintendo, saying that third-party partners were ushered to stick their hands in a covered box and feel--not see--the Switch 2. Sources in attendance tell Vandal that the next-generation Switch device would have magnetic joycons.

Square Enix has cancelled $140 million worth of games, and multiple games could have been affected.

Today, Square Enix announced it'll be taking a ¥22.1 billion loss in its Fiscal Year 2023 financials as it cancels content that was in the production pipeline. Last quarter, Square Enix CEO Takashi Kiryu announced plans to prioritize quality over quantity--instead of releasing multiple products that may not do well, the team will try to focus on safe bets.

To put the losses into perspective, Square Enix spent about $792 million on games development throughout FY22 as part of its production budget account. The updated spending for FY23 will be published in May.

Blizzard has officially cancelled BlizzCon 2024, but Microsoft didn't make the decision.

BlizzCon 2024 isn't happening. Instead, the billion-dollar live service guru plans to hold several smaller-scale events throughout the year, including worldwide in-person affairs for the 30th anniversary of Warcraft. There's also digital celebrations being planned. Blizzard plans to focus primarily on The War Within expansion for WoW and Diablo IV's new Vessel of Hatred expansion.

Cancelling the event makes sense. Rising operational costs have forced mass layoffs, and Blizzard even cancelled one of its new games to reduce spending. Since Microsoft now owns Blizzard, some have assumed that the decision came from them, but it was actually Blizzard's choice. This tracks because Activision Blizzard King operates as a limited-integration company within Microsoft, which means they get to call their own shots.

Ubisoft has today confirmed that it will make the Assassin's Creed Mirage game available for download on the iPhone and iPad starting on June 6, although the game's App Store page continued to say June 10. In a press release, Ubisoft confirmed that gamers will need an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max to play the game, while those with iPad Air and iPad Pro tablets with the M1 chip or newer will also be able to get in on the act. With Apple expected to announce new M4 iPad Pros soon, we can expect those tablets to play the new game particularly well.

The game can be preordered from the App Store right now with the title available for all who want to play it for free - although only for the first 90 minutes. After that, unlocking the full version will cost $49.99. Thankfully, that's a one-time purchase that will make the game available for both the iPhone and iPad, so buyers won't have to buy the game twice to play on their phone and tablet.

The Assassin's Creed Mirage game is of course already available for PlayStation, Xbox, and Windows PCs and has been since October of last year. But with the title being such a recent one it's important to note just how impressive it is that Apple's iPhones, albeit its most expensive, are capable of playing these console-quality games. We've already seen games like Death Stranding and Resident Evil make an appearance in the App Store, but those were slightly older titles.

Fortnite is coming back to Apple devices in Europe in 2024, starting first with iPhone and then iPad later in the year.

The European Union's new Digital Markets Act (DMA) has pried open the App Store and forced Apple to allow third-party stores on iPhones. The process isn't perfect, and there's still some compliance issues, but Apple will be forced to comply with the EU's new digital laws if it wants to sell products and services in Europe. Fortnite will come back to iPhone via a new Epic Games storefront that exists outside the App Store.

The European Commission has also found iPadOS to be a gatekeeper, so the DMA also applies to iPads. This means that Apple will need to allow and facilitate outside stores on their line of tablets as well. Thus, Fortnite will return to both iPhones (sometime soon) and iPads (sometime this year).

Manor Lords, which became the most wish-listed game on Steam during its development, is now out - and day one sales reflect its most-wanted status.

For those who missed it, Manor Lords is a medieval-themed city builder that mixes constructing a settlement with a side order of tactical battles - and some seriously nifty visuals.

As publisher Hooded Horse declared in a post on X (formerly Twitter), on the initial day sales topped 1 million copies on Steam. Manor Lords also managed to achieve the highest ever concurrent player count for a city builder on Valve's platform, with some 173,000 PC gamers indulging in being a Lord at the same time on launch day.

MSI's Claw gaming handheld has received a new BIOS and GPU driver update, which boosts performance across the board by 5% to 40%, while 7 Ways to Die gets a huge 150% performance boost.

The company claims it has "smooth gameplay" across 100 of the most popular games on Steam, with MSI's new "106" BIOS also making it easier to update your Claw in the future. You will no longer need to use a USB flash drive to install a new BIOS, which is something you'd expect to be standard at this point... at least it's coming.

All of the benchmarks you can see in the image above are running on the Performance Mode on the MSI Claw at 1080p, with Low in-game graphics settings, XeSS upscaling set to Performance, V-Sync disabled, and the FPS limitation has been disabled.

MSI has made a much-needed move - actually two moves - to improve the performance of its Claw gaming portable.

Firstly, MSI has deployed an updated BIOS and complemented that with new Intel GPU drivers to give a claimed boost of up to 150%.

The updates give the MSI Claw the wherewithal to play the top 100 most popular games on Steam "smoothly" the maker tells us.

Roblox and Walmart are working together to change retail--and gaming--forever.

Today, Walmart announced that gamers can now buy real-world products right within Roblox. The feature is part of the Walmart Discovered experience on Roblox, which gamifies a visit to the big box retailer in a fanciful and colorful way.

Only this time it's more than a simulation--users can buy actual physical products directly within the Roblox client. Yes, you can actually shop for goods right in the virtual Walmart Discovered level. There's three items up for sale: a Sparkly Golden Tumbler for $15, a Fantastical Flower Bag for $20, and a pair of Radiant Headphones for $50. Each item comes with a "virtual twin," a more lavish and exciting digital version of the product.

Shift Up's new PS5 hit Stellar Blade is climbing Sony's best-seller charts.

Things are looking good for Stellar Blade, the latest PS5 exclusive from Korean developer Shift Up. The game just launched yesterday, and in that time span, Stellar Blade has now broken the top 5 of the best-selling games on the PlayStation Store.

According to the listings, which are publicly available on any PlayStation 5 console that's connected to the internet, Stellar Blade is currently the #4 top best-selling game on the PlayStation Store in the United States. The game had previously been on the 25 best-sellers list, but had not previously broken the top 10. Now that Stellar Blade is out on the market--to strong reviews, no less--U.S. gamers are buying it up.

Capcom's Dragon's Dogma 2, a massive open-world RPG, has been one of the years talked about and played games. On PC, the gameplay has been generally well received; however, poor performance and optimization for Capcom's impressive RE Engine going 'open-world' for the first time is one of the main reasons it's currently sitting on a "Mixed" user rating on Steam.

That said, if you're looking for a mod that takes the game visuals to the next level, the Graphics Suite ALPHA mod from EXXXcellent (download it at Nexus Mods) unlocks a hidden developer menu for the game that includes a path-tracing renderer for the game that is not available in the retail version.

Path tracing (also called full ray tracing) covers indirect lighting, global illumination, shadows, and reflections - where anything related to light is ray-traced. Dragon's Dogma already includes RTGI or ray-traced global illumination, but as we can see in Digital Foundry's video on the path tracing mod, the difference is night and day.

Capcom is set to deliver seven consecutive fiscal years of record-breaking operating income growth thanks to the overperformance of key games.

Capcom's games are selling so well that the publisher has significantly adjusted its earnings forecast. The company now expects to have made 152.4 billion yen (about $968 million) in net sales across the Fiscal Year 2023 period, which ended in March. This forecast represents an increase of +12.4 billion yen (about $78 million) over the last estimate.

Operating income is also expected to be up 1.8 points to 57 billion yen. If Capcom can hit this target, then it will have achieved seven consecutive fiscal periods of record-breaking operating profit results. Based on our findings, Capcom's operating income trajectory will have a CAGR of 20% when looking at results from FY17 through FY23.

When it comes to physics-driven sandbox games with community mods and creations, PC classic Garry's Mod is up there as an all-timer. It's been a Steam staple for decades, with the game's history tied to the release of Valve's own iconic Half-Life 2 from 2004.

And now, in a very strange and out-of-nowhere move, Garry's Mod creator Garry Newman and Facepunch Studios have confirmed that they have received DCMA copyright takedown requests from none other than Nintendo. At first, many believed this was a hoax orchestrated by a copyright troll, but Garry Newman has taken to X to confirm that the takedown requests are "legit" and have been "verified by Nintendo."

What does this mean? Any mod or creation for Garry's Mod, including Nintendo content, characters, or IP, must be removed. And when you're talking about decades and thousands of uploads, it's "an ongoing process" with "20 years of uploads to go through."

Valve has changed Steam's refund policy, which featured a loophole that was undoubtedly abused by at least thousands of gamers.

Steam's refund policy is quite straightforward; at its most rudimentary, a user can purchase a game and play it for up to two hours. Before the two-hour mark, the buyer was able to refund the game at zero cost, and as you can probably imagine, this loophole was easily abusable by the millions of Steam users. However, Valve has now changed its policy by partially patching up the loophole, specifically in regard to titles that are in pre-purchase and offer "Advanced Access."

For those that don't know, Advanced Access can be granted to a player that pre-purchases a title. Sometimes developers and publishers will give early access to a game to those who pre-order. The duration of this access can sometimes be as long as a week or just 24 hours. Steam's refund policy didn't count any hours played of an Advanced Access title, and only began counting after it was officially released.

Sony's gaming patents are now starting to coalesce into exciting new features for PlayStation consoles, and today's new addition could help pave the way for major next-gen upgrades on the PlayStation 6.

Community Game Help is now live on PS5, turning PlayStation users into tipsters along the way. The new feature is an evolution of the PS5's Game Help feature that gives users video and/or picture tutorials on how to complete certain activities in a game (e.g. boss fights). Think of it as a digital version of those old NES secrets books from the 1990s.

What does the Community Game Help feature actually do? How does it work? Sony explains: "Once you turn on the settings, your PS5 will automatically capture a video when you complete a certain activity in a game. Then, it will be reviewed by a moderator, and if approved, your video will be published as a Game Help hint for PlayStation players to watch, learn from, and rate."

Blizzard games have started appearing on GeForce NOW, thanks to NVIDIA's cloud gaming service supporting Battle.net. As part of its weekly GFN Thursday update, NVIDIA confirmed the addition of 16 new games to the GeForceNOW library. And there's more Blizzard love joining the service in the form of classic games from the Diablo and StarCraft franchises.

This includes StarCraft Remastered, StarCraft II, Diablo II: Resurrected, and Diablo III, all playable over the cloud with GeForce RTX hardware. And yes, you can stream games like the excellent Diablo II: Resurrected remaster/remake at up to 4K 240 frames per second if you've got a GeForce NOW Ultimate subscription - and access to a GeForce RTX 4080.

These Blizzard additions join Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, Call of Duty, and Hearthstone, which are all supported and available on GeForce NOW. Other new titles joining the library this week include Dead Island 2 (Steam), the retro-inspired shooter Phantom Fury (Steam), and the highly anticipated Manor Lords (Steam and Xbox/PC Game Pass).

Microsoft confirms that its gaming hardware revenues are down significantly as consumers are buying fewer Xbox consoles.

Microsoft's latest Q3 results delivered both good and bad news for Xbox. The good news is that revenues are up +50% to $5.451 billion, driven by content & services, and that Xbox has now made more than it ever has before. The bad news? Hardware earnings are down, this time dropping by 31%.

Xbox consoles generated $429 million in revenue for the Q3 period, representing just 8% of the total quarterly amount. "Xbox hardware revenue decreased 31% driven by lower volume of consoles sold," reads Microsoft's new 10-Q SEC filing. While Microsoft may be getting outpaced on the hardware front, it's doing very well when it comes to gaming software and services.