Gaming - Page 253

After less than 3 years on the market culminating in 5 seasons of content, 343 Industries has now retired Halo Infinite's seasonal structure.

Halo Infinite's seasons have been retired as developer 343i moves on to new projects. During a recent update stream, Halo community director Brian 'Ske7ch' Jarrard confirmed the news, saying that the studio will continue working on new Infinite updates, but these drops will no longer be referred to as seasons. Instead, the updates are being called CU's, or Content Updates.

"We're making a shift in how we're approaching Infinite going forward. The gist of it is that we're no longer referring to these as seasons. We're shifting away from seasons. Semantically, for what it's worth, our January 30th update will henceforth be known as CU 29 (Content Update #29)," Jarrard said during the stream.

Post-launch support for Bethesda's Starfield has been quiet, with very few patches or updates, a handful of bug fixes, and the most notable quality-of-life update being the ability to eat all the space food lying around without picking it up.

That's set to change in 2024, with the development studio confirming that players should expect major updates every six weeks or so - with several notable additions coming, like city maps, 'new ways of traveling,' official mod tools, and more. The first major update for 2024, Starfield Update 1.9.47.0, is currently playable in the Steam Beta branch, and the reception from players has been lukewarm because it is extremely light on changes to the game.

Granted, there are over 100 updates in the official Patch Notes, but most of these are related to bugs and quest fixes. Bethesda Game Studios goes so far as to state that this update would "focus on quality-of-life improvements," but that doesn't seem to be the case at all.

Now is an opportune time for video games developers, publishers, and platform-holders to push consumers even further towards digital gaming.

With the help of the billion-dollar microtransaction market, digital has taken over gaming as the largest revenue-generating medium. Console-makers like Sony and Microsoft have released digital-only systems to serve content, subscriptions, and services directly to consumers via digital marketplaces.

The up-side for digital-only games is massive for these companies; digital cuts a lot of costs, including manufacturing/shipping costs of the discs themselves. The trend towards digital has been vastly accelerated on both the hardware and access front, with platform-holders like Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft offering value-oriented subscriptions to buffer--and, in Microsoft's case, overtake--the traditional business of selling games.

Walmart has reportedly been ordered by game suppliers to dispose of and/or destroy all physical disc copies of Starfield.

Starfield will reportedly be the initial first-party Xbox game to be removed from sale at retailers. According to a new employee memo, Walmart will begin taking down physical disc-based versions of Starfield from store shelves and removing the products from sale. The mass de-listing is reportedly at the behest of the game's suppliers, which in this case is Microsoft and/or Bethesda Softworks/ZeniMax Media.

The memo, which has been corroborated by deals maestro Wario64, says that the retailer aims to have all copies of Starfield removed from store shelves and processed by February 5.

Palworld, a third-person Pokemon-esque survival game, is the next mega-popular indie sensation to hit the market.

The highly anticipated crafting-survival adventure game Palworld just launched in early access on PC and Xbox, and it's already racking up huge numbers. The game has sold over 1 million copies in its first 8 hours of availability on Steam and Xbox Series X/S, and at $29.99 per purchase, developer Pocketpair has certainly achieved great success.

That record has since risen to 2 million copies sold in the first 24 hours. Everyone is taking notice, especially the likes of Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, both of which are probably very interested in this new "Pokemon with guns" hit.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has made a controversial decision, it seems, when it comes to a feature that is normally free.

We're talking about the New Game+ mode, which is usually part and parcel of the core experience, and unlocked when you've completed the game for the first time.

However, with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (the franchise previously known as Yakuza), you only get the New Game+ option after completion if you've purchased the more expensive editions of the game.

Ara: History Untold is a grand strategy game in the vein of Civilization which does things rather differently, particularly when it comes to valuing the player's time.

Developed by Oxide Games and published by Microsoft, Ara: History Untold is set to release in the fall of 2024 on PC (and PC Game Pass), and it comes with some innovative ideas for the genre.

Firstly, there's that promise of not wasting your time, and Michelle Menard, Design Director at Oxide Games, explains how that works in a lengthy chat with Xbox Wire (hat tip to PC Gamer).

Farming Simulator 22 is the latest game to get AMD's FSR 3 frame generation tech to help with smoother frame rates.

It's a niche title, obviously, albeit one that's popular with its fans (online competitions, leagues and so on are built around this game, we should add). The addition of FSR 3 will go a long way towards smoother harvesting and hay bale stacking.

The feature comes with Farming Simulator 22 update version 1.13.1.1, and naturally requires an AMD (or NVIDIA) graphics card that supports FSR 3. RX 5000 GPUs are included, but it's recommended to have an RX 6000 or 7000 model. (For NVIDIA, RTX 2000 works, although RTX 3000 and 4000 GPUs are recommended).

We all love an underdog story (don't we?), so how about this one: an indie developer that's actually a lone programmer whose game is almost at the top of Steam's most-wanted rankings.

Manor Lords is in second place on Steam's wishlist rankings, which is a more than remarkable achievement against truly heavyweight competition as you might imagine.

The game from developer Slavic Magic (otherwise known as Greg Styczeń) is a city builder with a medieval theme and an in-depth economic and social engine, with large tactical battles thrown in to spice up the pot.

Obsidian has updated release timing for its narrative-driven new fantasy RPG Avowed.

Avowed is set to launch sometime in Fall 2024 as a full premium game on Xbox Series X/S on PC, and with a day-and-date launch on Xbox Game Pass. Obsidian announced the date in today's Developer Direct 2024 showcase, where the studio also talked briefly about combat and promised gamers will face some tough decisions with quests.

The new fantasy RPG takes place in the Pillars of Eternity universe, and will leverage the lore, myth, magic, and overall legacy from that series. Avowed will also make use of Obsidian's penchant for engaging, impactful, and consequential storytelling; the studio says players will go against "difficult decisions with profound consequences."

The new Indiana Jones game apparently will not release on PlayStation consoles at launch--if ever.

Today, MachineGames and Bethesda revealed their new Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game. The project stars Harrison Ford, and takes players on a swashbuckling first-person adventure set between Raiders and The Last Crusade. Predictably, it looks like the Great Circle is exclusive to Xbox and PC and will not release on PlayStation (at least at launch).

While the Xbox YouTube channel will often upload trailers that exclude competing platforms, a game's full platform availability can typically be found on the developer/publisher's channel. Bethesda Softworks has published a trailer for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle that omits PlayStation as a launch platform--only Xbox Series X/S consoles, Game Pass, and Steam are listed (it's likely coming to the Microsoft PC store, though too).

Xbox's new Indiana Jones game will use Harrison Ford's likeness, and MachineGames reveals tons of new information about its new Indy project.

MachineGames has officially revealed Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a new action-adventure game with a first-person view. Harrison Ford has signed on to lend his iconic face to the project, complete with his signature hat, adventurer's coat, and legendary whip. Ford looks like he just jumped off the big screen and right into the game.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will come to Xbox, PC, and Game Pass in 2024, the studio has announced.

Video game subscription services such as Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus account for roughly 10% of annual spending in the United States.

Ubisoft's recent comments on subscription have sparked industry-wide discussions about services. Swen Vincke, the CEO of Baldur's Gate 3 dev Larian, warned gamers that content could suffer if subscriptions became the dominant platform.

Luckily for consumers, this won't happen any time soon. According to Circana executive director and analyst Mat Piscatella, subscription services aren't a major spending point for consumers in the United States.

Take-Two Interactive has filed a trademark opposition against Remedy Entertainment's new R logo, but Remedy now says both companies have already settled the matter.

In May 2023, Control, Max Payne, and Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment filed a trademark for a new logo. The studio wanted to change their logo to a new "R" design. At first glance, viewers might get it mixed up with Rockstar Games' infamous R* logo--at least that's what Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive thought. So the billion-dollar publisher filed a trademark dispute against the Finnish studio in August, and Remedy's new trademark is listed as opposed on the UK Intellectual Property Office.

Now it's been revealed that this is actually a non-story. Remedy tells Game File's Stephen Totilo that both Remedy and Take-Two have settled their differences, and the trademark opposition was just a formality. The publisher and the studio are on good terms with one another.

Street Fighter 6 has now sold 3 million units to date, making it the fifth best-selling game in the franchise.

Capcom's latest Street Fighter game has combo'd its way to success. Street Fighter 6 has now sold 3 million copies on all platforms, which is quite the achievement given the massive amounts of video games competition in 2023. This milestone is also up +2 million sales since July 2023, where Street Fighter 6 had sold 1 million units.

Based on Capcom's historical records, Street Fighter 6 is now the fifth best-selling game in the series and looks to be among the fastest-selling Street Fighters ever released. Total Street Fighter franchise sales are now at 52 million.

Last year, NVIDIA announced that over 500 apps and games were RTX enabled, meaning they used powerful ray-tracing or AI enhancements like DLSS rendering. It's an impressive milestone and a reminder that we're now at the point where gamers expect support for things like DLSS and ray-tracing in modern blockbuster releases.

Today comes another milestone with NVIDIA announcing that its Reflex latency reduction technology for all GeForce gamers is now available in over 100 games. Reflex reduces latency, so there's no delay from when you carry out an action to watching that action happen on screen.

Designed to give gamers a competitive edge in multiplayer titles and make single-player titles feel more responsive, Reflex is available in basically all of today's most-played and popular games - Apex Legends, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike 2, Fortnite, Cyberpunk 2077, Diablo IV, and even The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and the free-to-play Warzone just got an update, adding support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 or FSR 3 that adds upscaling and frame generation to a broader range of gamers.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III launched with NVIDIA DLSS 3 Frame Generation support and DLSS 2, FSR 2.1, and Intel XeSS upscaling. However, like with all DLSS 3-enabled titles, the Frame Generation side of the equation is limited to the GeForce RTX 40 Series of cards - due to NVIDIA's approach using new specialized AI hardware in its latest line-up.

AMD's approach is different, an open-source platform agnostic version of both upscaling and frame generation - meaning that it's available for all players no matter if they're rocking a new 40 Series, a GeForce RTX 30 Series, or a Radeon RX 6000 or RX 7000 Series GPU.

The Elder Scrolls is getting its own Fallout Shelter mobile game.

Bethesda has a big day tomorrow. The publisher's MachineGames studio will reveal its Indiana Jones action adventure game, and ZeniMax Online will show off what's to come in The Elder Scrolls online in 2024. While the show is tomorrow, the company took the opportunity to make an impromptu game reveal just before the big event.

The new game is called The Elder Scrolls: Castles, and it's a mobile game that's basically a TES version of Fallout Shelter. The game isn't live yet worldwide and is currently available in soft launch in the Philippines. Bethesda confirms that users can pre-register to be notified once Castles is available on the App Store and Google Play.

Tomorrow, Microsoft sets the stage for Xbox gaming in 2024...but the lineup won't include a surprise release.

Xbox is known for casually dropping new games the very same day they were revealed. It happened with the colorful Hi-Fi Rush in 2023, so...could it happen in 2024 as well? Microsoft says no, there won't be any shadow drops this time.

A new Xbox Wire post gives gamers an idea of what to expect from tomorrow's Developer Direct. The show won't feature any sort of news updates around Activision Blizzard King games--everyone wants to know when classic Call of Duty is coming to Xbox Game Pass. Nor will Microsoft or any Xbox Game Studios publisher release a new game during the show.

Following the Supreme Court;'s decision not to hear appeals by either Apple or Epic Games in a bloody antitrust battle that saw the former win out across nine of 10 issues, the iPhone maker has claimed that Epic should pay $73 million to cover its costs.

Apple's claim is that since Epic lost 90% of the court case last time out and that there is now no appeal to be heard, the game software company should be forced to pay for 90% of its court bills. Apple says that it spent $82,971,401 defending against its case. It then adjusted that to $81,560,362 before deducting the 10% that it believes it should have to pay itself. The result? A cool $73,404,326 tax bill has now landed at the doorstep of Epic.

Apple says that since Epic broke its App Store rules that brought all of this about, it's on Epic to pay for its costs. This comes after Apple pointed to its developer program license agreement which developers agree to when publishing apps and games to the App Store. In that agreement, Epic and other developers agree to indemnify Apple against legal expenses relating to breaches of that agreement.