Gaming - Page 25

Subnautica 2's stellar launch sales have reportedly triggered a bonus that will award developers at Unknown Worlds up to $250 million, as per an acquisition contract signed in 2021.

Years ago, PUBG giant Krafton bought Subnautica dev Unknown Worlds for half a billion dollars. Included in that buyout deal was a clause that Krafton would pay $3.12 for every $1 earned in excess of $69.8 million across any given month. Krafton laid off Subnautica 2's leadership team, laying off management, leading to a lawsuit that eventually reinstated the developers to ensure they have a fair shot of hitting the bonus target.

Now it appears that target has been hit thanks to Subnautica 2's release. Sources tell The Korea Economic Daily that the developers at Unknown Worlds have indeed broken the earnings threshold and triggered the bonus. It's unclear how much Krafton will have to pay, but the clause is for up to $250 million, which is 35% of Krafton's annual operating profit, the KED notes.

After years of being banned from Apple's platform, Fortnite is finally back on iOS worldwide, and the return has been anything but quiet. The legal battle with Apple over storefront taxes and payment options isn't over, but the first week's download numbers make it very clear why Epic spent years fighting to get back on Apple devices.

According to AppMagic data cited by PocketGamer, Fortnite pulled 3.4 million iOS downloads globally during its first week back on the App Store. This figure makes it the fourth-strongest week for Fortnite since its launch, just 0.3 million downloads shy of the 3.7 million seen in the 2018 launch week. Considering the game is eight years old and has undergone several major changes, matching its highest-ever popularity shows how the game can still move like it's brand new.

When comparing daily downloads, Fortnite's global return marked the highest daily download numbers in eight years. From approximately 19,000 installs on May 18, 2026, daily downloads surged by 1,408% to almost 290,000 on May 19, then peaked at 674,000 on May 23. Throughout the week, daily installs consistently surpassed numbers seen before the global relaunch, with 445,000 additional downloads recorded on day seven.

Take-Two Interactive boss Strauss Zelnick gives some clues on what's next for Grand Theft Auto VI, unofficially indicating that the game will have some sort of online mode ready for the influx of new players.

It's no secret that GTA Online is a billion-dollar success; the service can make $4.4 million per week on PS5 and help the franchise make anywhere from $100 million to nearly $300 million per quarter. Rockstar has transformed Grand Theft Auto into a kind of service franchise, and there's no reason to think the latest GTA 6 release would be any different. While specifics haven't been revealed, Take-Two Interactive's CEO comments that Rockstar Games will be very busy after GTA 6's official November release, likely with a mix of content updates for the online mode as well as critical bug fixes.

In a recent interview with The Game Business, Zelnick answered a question about layoffs at Rockstar once GTA 6 launches. In that response, Zelnick talks about a busy future for Rockstar:

Activision started up a mysterious live stream earlier this morning where it showed snippets of this year's Call of Duty game, proving that the leaks surrounding the title were correct.

This year's Call of Duty game is indeed set in the Korean peninsula, new official teaser footage has confirmed. The footage depicts bodycam footage of a group of Korean soldiers walking around a city, which is then struck by a missile attack.

The news comes shortly after Activision formally sent a cease-and-desist to Call of Duty leaker TheGhostofHope, whose original leaks turned out to be accurate. The info says that Modern Warfare 4 will chronicle a conflict between North and South Korea, however official details have yet to be confirmed by Activision or Infinity Ward.

Valve has increased the price of its premium Steam Deck OLED duo, causing concerns about the company's upcoming Steam Machine.

Gaming systems are becoming more and more expensive as Valve makes a substantial price hike for its Steam Deck handhelds. The Steam Deck OLEDs went back into stock alongside the effective hike, with the 512GB OLED now at $789, up $200 and +34% from its previous price of $589, and the 1TB model is now an attention-getting $949, up a hefty $300 and +46% from its previous price of $649.

The new adjustment only reflects the OLED models--remember that the original LCD models are now out of production--and Valve offered a simple explanation: "Steam Deck OLED is back in stock, with a price increase for both models due to rising memory and storage costs."

CD Projekt was forced to pre-emptively announce new content for The Witcher 3, one of the most popular video games ever made, and it has caused some damage to the company's stock.

Today, CD Projekt made a surprise announcement that seemed to come out of nowhere: Witcher 3 is getting a new expansion, it's called Songs of the Past, and it's coming sometime in 2027. But there's a good reason this was a surprise--CD Projekt didn't originally plan to reveal the expansion this way, but instead during tomorrow's special Witcher 3 anniversary stream.

The Polish game devs accidentally uploaded Songs of the Past to the Red Launcher, and within minutes, news of the mysterious project spread all over the internet. So instead of just waiting, CD Projekt tried to get ahead of the leaks and just revealed Songs of the Past without any kind of fanfare or triumph--indicating that the group may have accidentally fouled the initial marketing strategy for the product.

The Witcher 3 is getting a new expansion, and CD Projekt is now refreshing the game's minimum spec requirements to reflect the upgrades from the fresh storyline.

Today, CD Projekt announced Songs of the Past, the third major expansion for The Witcher 3. The news confirmed earlier reports, however the rumors were wrong about the release date--Songs of the Past won't launch in 2026, and instead due out sometime next year.

Also included in the reveal was an update to The Witcher 3's main PC spec requirements. The game now requires 12GB of RAM, a graphics card with at least 6GB of VRAM with GPUs like NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1660 and AMD's Radeon RD 5500XT being examples, as well as incompatibility with HDDs and pushing users to move to SSDs. CD Projekt further confirms that gamers will need to play The Witcher 3 on Windows 11. Songs of the Past will probably work on Windows 10, yet CD Projekt says that it cannot ensure that it will.

Generative AI has been a polarizing topic in the video game industry ever since these tools became widely available. While many game developers have already issued statements against the use of generative AI, everyone's favorite usual suspect, Ubisoft, has gone the other way. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot previously praised AI as "revolutionary" for video game development, and we are starting to see its first steps in that direction.

Apparently, according to Tom Henderson from Insider Gaming, Ubisoft has been testing generative AI in future projects, including Far Cry 7. The specific project that Henderson mentioned was "Teammates," but Ubisoft is apparently also testing prompts in Far Cry 7 for research purposes. In a tweet that has since been deleted, Henderson went on to say that the Gen AI experiment "looks like s**t."

Ubisoft has been in troubled waters lately, as both Far Cry 7 and Assassin's Creed Hexe look to be in developmental limbo. In such a situation, generative AI seems like a low-cost tool to speed things up a bit, but at what cost? Ubisoft has also committed to accelerating its generative AI efforts on its FY2025-26 earnings call just a few days ago.

Dragon Quest XII has been rebooted, complete with a new theme and a new subtitle, Beyond Dreams.

Square Enix today announced that development of Dragon Quest XII has been restarted with a fresh new narrative, characters, and overall visual style. The game now better reflects the bright and colorful world of the Dragon Quest series as shown in the teaser trailer released today, also showing a first look at Beyond Dreams' protagonist along the way.

"The game has gone in a different direction to the one we originally announced, but I think you're going to love it," said Dragon Quest XII: Beyond Dreams game designer Yuji Horii. The designer also confirmed that Beyond Dreams would also use Akira Toriyama's characters and Koichi Sugiyama's music, like every other Dragon Quest game before it.

The rumors were right: The Witcher 3 is officially getting a new expansion, and it's coming in 2027.

Today, CD Projekt confirmed recent reports by announcing Songs of the Past, the third major expansion for The Witcher 3 that's coming almost twelve years after the game's original launch in 2015.

Songs of the Past will launch in 2027 on current-gen PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (no PS4, Xbox One, or Switch versions) and is being co-developed with collaborator studio Fool's Theory, a group who has frequently appeared in CD Projekt's earnings reports attached to a mystery project that hadn't been revealed until now.

Sony has rotated most of Destiny 2's content library into PlayStation Plus as the game exits active development and enters virtual retirement.

The Destiny 2 Legacy Collection is coming to PlayStation's subscription service, with PS Plus Extra and Premium users getting an opportunity to jump into the game ahead of the space shooter's official retirement on June 9. After that date, Bungie will no longer release any new content updates for Destiny games, instead focusing on Marathon. The studio still intends to give Destiny 2 a good send off and is inviting PS Plus subscribers to try out nearly a decade of content in the process.

The PS Plus freebie version includes Lightfall, The Witch Queen, packs from Beyond Light, Shadowkeep, and Forsaken, three dungeons, the 30th anniversary pack, and the added bonus of The Final Shape expansion. The upfront value here is very high, especially for new players who were interested in trying out Destiny 2...yet the game does have a clear progression block once all of the endgame content is exhausted.

The new Halo 1 remake will make substantial enough changes to the campaign to make the game feel somewhat new, even to longtime fans.

Microsoft is celebrating 25 years of the Halo franchise with a big new release, but instead of a sequel, Xbox is reaching it Bungie's past and resurrecting one of the most iconic games of all time. The new Halo Campaign Evolved release aims to essentially revamp, upgrade, and in some cases, alter the Xbox original in order to achieve three major goals: 1) have a frontline, premium release to capitalize on Halo's anniversary, 2) provide a product that ties well into Xbox Game Pass, and 3) further progress in UE5 adoption.

As for content, Halo Studios is giving everyone a good reason for everyone try out the game. PlayStation users will try it because they may never have played a Halo game before, but Xbox gamers, even franchise die hards, will want to return in order to play the new missions. New reports from trusted games reporter Rebs Gaming indicate that Halo Studios has altered some Halo CE's campaign missions, including The Library, which has received significant adjustments.

Newegg's latest Deal of the Day is helping gamers buy Switch 2 consoles for little over $400 for the base console.

Gamers have an opportunity to beat the incoming Nintendo Switch 2 price hike with a well-timed deal. Newegg's current Deal of the Day discounts $200 worth of Nintendo eShop gift cards for $170. Gamers are buying 2x of these deals, redeeming the gift card balances into their Nintendo accounts, and then adding extra money to cover the full cost of a Switch 2 console.

In this way, users can attain a base Switch 2 console with no games for $390 pre-tax (little over $400 depending on state), or a pick-your-own-game bundle for $440.

Warhorse Studios aims to have the next Kingdom Come game out in the next few years, and if everything goes according to plan, the game could launch by April 2028.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 has become a big success for publisher Deep Silver with 5x the revenue than the first game in the US at launch, so it's no surprise that a new game is already in the works. The project was actually confirmed in Embracer Group's recent earnings report, where it also announced that Warhorse would now be joining Fellowship Entertainment, a new company spun off by Embracer that now leads IPs like Lord of the Rings, Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and the aforementioned Kingdom Come.

Now we have comments from Warhorse on the timing of the next KC game. In a recent stream, studio communications director Tobias Stolz-Zwilling says the game will ideally be out by next fiscal year, which corresponds with the April 2027 - March 2028 timeframe. He also confirmed that KCD2 creative director Prokop Jirsa will lead the core team behind the new KC title.

Dragon Quest is getting a special hour-long showcase tomorrow, May 27, 2026 at 9AM EST to commemorate the franchise's 40th anniversary, and updates on the next mainline DQ game are expected at the show.

Square Enix is set to celebrate a major milestone in one of the most enduring video game franchises as its Dragon Quest RPG series turns 40 years old. The publisher is holding a Dragon Quest stream tomorrow on DQ Day that will highlight the last 4 decades of adventuring, leading to a hefty 95 million copies sold.

Specifics on what exactly will be shown during the event have not been revealed, and gamers are avidly looking forward to a myriad of projects, including remakes of Dragon Quest VIII and IX, and even Dragon Quest Builders 3. However, it's been more than four years since Square Enix revealed the teaser for Dragon Quest XII, so that game could be up next for a major showing.

Sony's latest patent could pave the way for native advertising in PlayStation games.

A newly-published patent shows that Sony has very forward-thinking plans about how it will use the valuable visual space in its games, especially during downtime sequences like loading screens. The patent (Delivery of Alternate Content During Video Game Wait Times, 20260138036) was actually filed in late 2024 but only recently published this month.

It's important to note that the main reason this patent even exists isn't for ads, or at least that's not the cause given. Sony created the patent in an effort to preserve total immersion in its games by giving players something to do, look at, or engage with during loading screens or match-up transitions. The patent calls this "alternate content," and there's even mention of generative AI models being used to make this content.

After a decade of fan requests, Jason Voorhees is finally joining the lineup of killers in Dead by Daylight. Developer Behaviour Interactive officially announced the iconic Friday the 13th slasher as part of the game's 10th anniversary celebrations, with Jason set to enter The Fog on June 16, 2026. Players on Steam's public test build can get an early taste of the hockey-masked killer from May 26.

Jason enters Dead by Daylight with two major abilities. The first, Omnipresent Evil, is a stealth-based power that allows him to vanish from the map entirely, moving at increased speed while tracking survivors through subtle footstep cues. To reappear, Jason must target environmental points like pallets, vault points, or breakable walls, appearing seemingly out of nowhere for a perfect jumpscare.

The second ability, Improvised Carnage, lets Jason throw makeshift projectiles scattered across the map, including locker fragments, broken generator parts, shattered pallets, and hooks. A successful throw staggers a survivor, and hitting an injured survivor near a wall pins them in place, letting you savor the kill even more.

Yujiro Hanma is the second Ogre to join Tekken's character roster, and Bandai Namco plans to add the villain into the game.

Megalomaniac father figures Heihachi and Kazuya might get one-upped by Tekken's latest combatant. The terrifying and legendary Yujiro Hanma will be a playable fighter coming to Tekken 8's new season 3 pass in early 2027. The news was made at the Combo Breaker 2026 fighting game expo, and while no actual gameplay footage of the strongest creature on Earth was actually shown, fans are still reeling from the surprise reveal.

Yujiro Hanma will cost $7.99 when he launches as a standalone DLC character in early 2027, and the Ogre will be included in the Tekken 8 Season 3 Character Pass for $39.99, including three other characters--Kunimitsu, Bob, and Roger Jr.

Star Citizen has broken a new sales milestone, and it's as big as they get in the games industry.

Cloud Imperium Games has finally done it: Star Citizen has officially broken $1 billion in player funding. The news was confirmed on the official RSI website, which shows the game has generated over $1 billion in crowdfunding across just 6.5 million users, which is no small feat to say the least.

CIG also has the benefit of owning the Star Citizen IP on a development and publishing label, that Star Citizen has its own private launcher, and that the studio has a rare direct digital monetization stream that can deliver high-margin earnings. In short, Star Citizen is less of a game than it is a bustling economy within itself that facilitates ship purchases and the like after the main game is bought--it's not unlike most live games in this way, but it's proven to be highly durable with resilient revenues.

After recently putting a Linux-powered PS5 setup through a path tracing test, the experts at Digital Foundry are back with another experiment, this time to show why Sony has never officially delivered PlayStation 3 emulation on the PS5. Using RPCS3, the most advanced PS3 emulator available, running natively on a hacked PS5 with firmware 6.02 or earlier, Digital Foundry tested a variety of games, with some running great while others struggled to achieve even PS3-level framerates.

Games that don't heavily rely on the PS3's exotic Cell processor and its Synergistic Processing Units (SPU) ran surprisingly well. Ridge Racer 7 ran at a locked 4K 60 FPS, while Resistance: Fall of Man hit 4K 30 FPS with only minor frame pacing issues. Heavenly Sword was arguably the most impressive result, scaling from its original sub-30 FPS 720p performance to a near-locked 30 FPS at a staggering 5120x2880, a 16x increase in pixel count over the original output.

The MotorStorm trilogy also held up well. The original MotorStorm ran at 1440p 30 FPS, Pacific Rift reached 4K 30 FPS, and Apocalypse also hit its performance target after MLAA was disabled through RPCS3 patches. In short, for games that didn't push the Cell processor's complex SPU architecture, the PS5 delivers a genuinely impressive upgrade in visual fidelity.