Gaming News - Page 295

SEGA plans to delist all existing digital versions of classic Sonic games ahead of its new Sonic Origins remaster collection.

Sonic Origins will soon be the only way to buy old-school Sonic games on modern hardware. According to Games Press, SEGA is removing existing standalone digital versions of Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic CD from all platforms. Anyone who currently owns these games will still be able to download and play the games, but new users won't be able to buy them.

The games will still be accessible on SEGA Ages and any games released on the Nintendo Switch Online+ Expansion Pak will still be playable.

Microsoft's games division just had its best Q3 of all time, driven by a substantial spike in hardware revenues.

Xbox gaming is bigger than ever. Microsoft sets another new record-breaking quarter for Xbox with $3.74 billion earned in Q3'2022 (January - March 2022), up $207 million year-over-year.

The growth was driven by an uptick in content & services (+6%) and hardware sales (+14%). The Xbox console sales jump coincides with NPD Group's March report that confirms Xbox Series X/S was the top-selling console in the United States.

Activision-Blizzard has lost a total of 63 million monthly active users in one year, signalling that gamers are moving on to other titles.

Activision's latest financials show a significant decrease in active players. According to the company's financials and data compiled by us, Activision-Blizzard had 372 million monthly active users (MAUs) in Q1 2022, down a whopping 63 million users from Q1 2021.

Activision made up most of this loss, which could indicate Call of Duty has lost tens of millions of users since last year.

Valheim is officially one of the most successful indie games ever released.

Iron Gate's Nordic survival sensation Valheim has sold over 10 million copies in little over a year, new data shows. This is a nice 2 million bump in sales from August 2021's figures, which pinpointed 8 million sales.

The milestone puts Valheim firmly in the top echelon of indie games like Stardew Valley (15 million), Rust (12.4 million), and Fall Guys (11 million). Valheim is even hitting AAA numbers, beating out big games like Final Fantasy XV (8.9 million) and brushing shoulders with Resident Evil 7 (10.6 million).

CD Projekt has adjusted the sales figures for Cyberpunk 2077 on all platforms.

Cyberpunk 2077's platform split has been revised following new data from CD Projekt RED. The company previously released figures suggesting that PC game sales were much higher than PS4 and Xbox One, but those numbers were erroneous. A new report filed by CD Projekt reveals updated data.

The numbers are estimated sell-through on PC, PS4, and Xbox One corresponding with 2020 and 2021. Cyberpunk 2077 has sold 18 million+ copies to date, with 13.7 million sold in 2020 and 4.3 million sold in 2021.

Ubisoft officially confirms it's working on Project Q, a wacky battle arena shooter coming to the free-to-play market.

Ubisoft's latest game Project Q was recently leaked by NDA-bound playtesters and inside info from Tom Henderson, and now Ubisoft has made the news official.

"Introducing codename "Project Q", a team battle arena letting players truly own the experience! The game is in early development and we will keep testing," Ubisoft said in a Tweet announcement that prompted players to sign up to playtest.

Sony has established a new game preservation team that will help support and sustain video game projects.

Sony's latest engineering group is future-proofing current PlayStation games to ensure they stand the test of time. The news comes from Garrett Fredley, a software engineer who recently became part of Sony's preservation upstart.

"Today is my first day as a Senior Build Engineer for PlayStation, working as one of their initial hires for the newly created Preservation team! Let's go and ensure our industry's history isn't forgotten!" Fredley wrote on LinkedIn.

The PlayStation 5 will get the long-awaited Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) feature this week, Sony has announced.

It's finally happening: VRR is coming to PS5 and will help tighten up next-gen gameplay even more. The PS5's Variable Refresh Rate can lead to better in-game performance by syncing the PS5's GPU rendering output frame rates with a display's refresh rate. The result is smoother gameplay and a reduction in visual artifacts, input lag, and screen tearing.

Sony notes that PS5's VRR functionality only works with HDMI 2.1-compatible displays, including newer TVs and PC monitors. There's still no mention of native 1440p resolution output.

Activision lost 50 million users in one year and it's possible Call of Duty Vanguard is a main culprit.

Activision-Blizzard's latest earnings report shows a significant decline in earnings and monthly active users. The Activision segment, which serves up Call of Duty games every year, was hit hardest by the player drop.

According to data compiled by us and provided by the publisher's SEC filings, Activision lost 50 million MAUs from Q1 2021 through Q1 2022. This represents a heavy 33% drop in monthly active users. While Activision doesn't mention the reasoning for the player drop, it does say that Vanguard's lower sales and reduced Warzone engagement were key drivers for net bookings drops.

A black PlayStation 5 devkit was spotted at Hideo Kojima's production studio, but that shouldn't be a surprise; it was always obvious he was making a new PS5 game.

Hideo Kojima recently shared a picture that showed a teleconference setup that would make the The Guild of Calamitous Intent jealous. That photo also includes a snapshot of a PS5 devkit in the background, prompting tons of coverage saying "Kojima is making a PS5 game." This is something that has been apparent for years.

Not only is Hideo Kojima using Sony's advanced MADO "telepresence system" to coordinate with KojiPro's new film studio in Los Angeles, and to help guide the motion capture teams that are recording footage at the PlayStation Visual Arts Motion Capture Studio, his team literally just released a PS5 game (Death Stranding Director's Cut). It's likely Kojima is capturing footage for a new film and/or a new game, or perhaps the interactive blend of film/games that he's talked about for years.