Gaming News - Page 298

No, Blizzard has no plans to create NFTs or play-to-earn blockchain games.

Blizzard recently sent out a poll trying to gauge interest in play-to-earn games and NFTs. This led to speculation Blizzard could be planning NFTs and following in the footsteps of Ubisoft and Konami.

Now Blizzard President Mike Ybarra squashes the rumors with a simple and curt response: "No one is doing NFTs."

What's going on with Cyberpunk 2077's multiplayer game? No one knows for sure, and CD Projekt RED won't give more details.

Back in 2017, we predicted Cyberpunk 2077 would have online multiplayer. Then in 2020 CD Projekt RED confirmed Cyberpunk 2077 multiplayer was coming, describing the game as a big AAA release.

Now these plans are in flux. CD Projekt has cancelled all future multiplayer development in Cyberpunk 2077's RED Engine and made a $4.9 million write-off on the technology. Instead CD Projekt will now use Unreal Engine 5 for its multiplayer ambitions.

Following an incredible box off performance, Sonic Speed Simulator is one of the most-played games on Roblox right now.

A bit ago SEGA launched an official Sonic game on Roblox called the Sonic Speed Simulator, a new open-world 3D adventure that's a lot like the early Sonic Adventure game. It's become a huge hit with Roblox's playerbase, amassing an all-time high of 100,000 concurrent users.

"Our Sonic game on Roblox just hit 100,000 concurrent players on its second day of release with a strategic marketing push combined with the organic digital buzz of the metaverse," Gamefam Chief Executive Officer Joe Ferencz said on LinkedIn.

Square Enix has expressed interest in using blockchain to facilitate user-generated content and to pay creators with cryptocurrency for their in-game creations.

Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy-maker Square Enix has always hyped up emerging technologies. Company President Yosuke Matsuda has a penchant for over-promising on industry trends like VR, smartphone gaming, and streaming, but more recently has embraced nascent tech like blockchain, play-to-earn, and NFTs.

However ambitious, Matsuda's latest affirmations could help pave the way for a new era of user-generated content through blockchain. In a recent interview with Yahoo Japan, Matsuda outlined his nebulous vision to use blockchain as a way to distribute user-generated content to gamers and remunerate content creators with cryptocurrency payouts. In practice, Square Enix essentially wants to mimic Roblox, who pays out billions every year to its content creators. It's also similar in theory to Bethesda's paid mods Creation Club platform.

Hideo Kojima has officially debunked rumors saying that PlayStation will acquire his game development studio.

Kojima Productions is not being purchased by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Studio founder Hideo Kojima confirmed the news on Twitter by essentially saying he has no interest to sell the company: "Kojipro has been, and will continue to be, an independent production studio."

The rumors were started from a new PlayStation Studios banner that added Death Stranding among the image slices of first-party games.

CD Projekt RED is far from finished with Cyberpunk 2077 and has devoted considerable development manpower for the game's upcoming expansions.

In a recent earnings report, CD Projekt erroneously reported that most of its teams are working on new games including the next Witcher title. The company has now clarified that the bulk of its dev teams are actually still working on Cyberpunk 2077's upcoming expansion, which is due out sometime in 2023.

"Right now, the bulk of our team is working on the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion that is targeted to be released in 2023," CD Projekt Group President and Joint CEO Adam Kicinski said in the FY2021 earnings call.

New details on Halo Infinite's innovative battle royale mode have surfaced, hinting at huge 100-player chaos.

According to new reports, Halo Infinite's battle royale gametype will be a combination of many existing modes and battle royale mechanics. For example, Infinite's ambitious new mode incorporates elements of multi-team and free-for-all with up to 100 players alongside traditional BR elements like shrinking map zones.

The mode, codenamed "Tatanka", is so big that it could be a separate client or perhaps a whole separate section within the Infinite server, separated from traditional multiplayer.

A huge 'Warzone-scale' battle royale type of mode is coming to Halo Infinite in an effort to revitalize the playerbase.

Halo Infinite's often-rumored battle royale mode could arrive sometime in season 3 alongside Forge, sources have told Windows Central's Jez Corden.

Halo 2 multiplayer developer Certain Affinity is making the mode, a massive undertaking that's been in development for two years with a scale that may rival Call of Duty Warzone--in fact, it's so big that it's "almost like another game."

Microsoft is reportedly working on its own ad tech platform that would serve up advertisements in free-to-play Xbox games.

Reports from Business Insider say that Microsoft wants to facilitate a platform to bring in-game ads to F2P Xbox games. Sources say Microsoft is currently in talks with ad tech specialists to build a new advertisement platform that will inject ads into specific games, namely free-to-play titles that may include the likes of Fortnite, Warzone, and Rocket League.

Although ad tech is one of the most lucrative aspects of mobile gaming, Microsoft's goal may be to boost visibility and engagement rather than make money. Sources say that Microsoft may not take a cut of the revenues generated from ads. Instead, game developers/publishers and advertisement agencies would share the proceeds.

Activision-Blizzard's latest SEC filing gives clues on what's on the horizon for the publisher, including possible release timings for its biggest games.

Blizzard's latest revenue earnings forecast suggests something big is coming in 2023. The company has forecasted a huge 90% year-over-year revenues spike that sees earnings jumping from $2 billion in 2022 to a whopping $3.75 billion in 2023.

Blizzard segment revenues have a forecasted 22% CAGR rate over the four-year period, and this particular rise represents the largest jump in year-over-year revenues across all of the company's segments.