Gaming - Page 306

Ubisoft has lowered the price of its next Assassin's Creed game below the current $70 MSRP for new titles.

Assassin's Creed Mirage will cost $50 on all platforms, well below the current $70 price tag for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S games. Ubisoft is also continuing its cross-gen free upgrades with Mirage, and the $50 version is cross-gen. That means it will include both a last-gen copy of the game on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One alongside entitlements to download a current-gen upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

This is welcome news for consumers who feel pressure from the new $70 baseline price for new games. Based on our findings, a portion of gamers feel that $70 too much money for AAA titles, and Sony sales data suggests that consumers are indeed buying less games, possibly due to higher costs.

Following years of controversy, Konami is back in the public eye for all the right reasons. The publisher has made a big comeback with revivals of its classic franchises, and now Metal Gear Solid is making a triumphant return.

The rumors were right: Konami is officially remaking Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The new game is actually called Metal Gear Solid Delta, and here's how Konami explains the name change: "The Delta symbol (Δ) was chosen because its meaning fits the concept of the remake project. Delta means "change" or "difference" without changing structure."

The remake is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam, and promises to revivify the 2004 classic with immensely upgraded visuals and features while preserving the key story beats, mechanics, and voice talent. That means David Hayter should be coming back to reprise Snake.

Microsoft has filed an appeal with the Competition Appeals Tribunal that argues why the CMA's merger block decision should be overturned, but some of these points aren't very strong or compelling.

Note: This is an opinion piece that builds an argument based on market trends and video games industry data.

In a new appeal filing, Microsoft legal counsel has listed five key reasons why the CMA was wrong to prohibit its $68.7 billion merger with Activision Blizzard King. The UK's Competition Appeals Tribunal, who oversees appeals in competition cases, has published an application summary that outlines Microsoft's appeals arguments. While a portion of these could be sound, including assertions that the CMA made "fundamental errors" in determining Microsoft's cloud gaming market share, some of the arguments just don't have much weight behind them.

Microsoft has filed an appeal asking UK appeal courts to overturn the Competition and Markets Authority's decision to block the Microsoft-Activision merger.

As promised, Microsoft has recently filed an appeal with the Competition Appeals Tribunal in an attempt to thwart the CMA's merger block. Microsoft's legal counsel has listed five reasons why the block was unjustified, but one that may carry the most weight is that the CMA "made fundamental errors in its assessment" of Xbox's current place in the cloud gaming segment. The CMA had found that Xbox's xCloud game streaming had 60% of cloud gaming MAUs in 2022, a number that has been contested.

Microsoft lists other grounds to challenge the decision, including the fact that the CMA "failed to take proper account" of its 10-year licensing deals with cloud game service competitors like NVIDIA's GeForce Now and Boosteroid, both of which will receive free access to Activision-Blizzard games if the merger goes through. It's also worth mentioning that these deals pose no real threat to Microsoft due to the business models associated with GeForce Now and Boosteroid, and the deals are probably something that the company had always planned to do.

The Pokemon Company has updated sales figures for the famous Pocket Monsters franchise, and the numbers are eye-opening to say the least.

Newly updated figures show the Pokemon series is fast approaching 500 million shipments and sales. From the first game in 1996 to the present day, Pokemon has now shipped over 480 million games worldwide across all platforms in the last 27 years. The update shows that the Pokemon series is up 40 million copies over last year, with March 2022's cumulative total at 440 million franchise shipments.

Data indicates that Pokemon is the third best-selling video game series of all time behind Tetris (495 million) and Mario (over 776 million). The rise in sales was driven by the incredible over-performance of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet on Nintendo Switch, which has sold 22.1 million copies from November 2022 - March 2023, alongside catalog sales of previous games.

Sony's new PlayStation handheld will reportedly have about 3-4 hours of battery life on a full charge.

PlayStation is getting a new handheld, but it won't be a Vita successor or a Switch competitor. It doesn't even stream games via the cloud similar to the Logitech G Cloud. The new PlayStation device, codenamed Project Q, exclusively supports Remote Play functionality over Wi-Fi and is basically two halves of a DualSense controller split between an 8-inch HD screen.

Sony Interactive Entertainment's Jim Ryan confirmed Project Q would play games in HD quality and it appears the device is capable of playing PlayStation 5 games at 1080p 60FPS handheld gaming via Remote Play over Wi-Fi. There's just two things we don't know for sure: Battery life and price. Sources have told Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson that Project Q's battery life is around 3-4 hours, which is in line with the Nintendo Switch.

Naughty Dog has officially delayed its Last of Us live service multiplayer game following reports of downsizing at the project's development team.

Sony revealed three first-party live service games at its recent PlayStation showcase, but Naughty Dog's anticipated Last of Us multiplayer game was noticeably missing. Now we know why: The game simply isn't ready. Today Naughty Dog has announced that the TLOU live service title has been delayed, and also re-confirmed that a new singleplayer game is in development in parallel with the multiplayer project.

The delay comes after downsizing occurred at the team handling the Last of Us live game. Sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that the live team has been scaled back following an evaluation of the game. Schreier notes that the project has currently been in development for at least four years now.

Rockstar Games' mega-hit Grand Theft Auto franchise has now generated over $8.33 billion since GTA V's launch in 2013, new figures from Take-Two Interactive indicate.

Take-Two just published its 10-K SEC filing that gives a complete picture of its Fiscal Year 2023 results, and in those reports we have updated metrics for Grand Theft Auto franchise revenues. According to the data, GTA products made up 14.6% of the company's total net revenues of $5.349 billion during FY23, which amounts to about $781 million.

The results push total Grand Theft Auto franchise earnings in excess of $8.33 billion from GTA V's launch in Q3 FY14 (September 2013), and includes earnings from multiple console and PC iterations of GTA V, sales of the newer Grand Theft Auto trilogy remaster collection, and revenues made from Grand Theft Auto Online's in-game purchases.

Nintendo has released a new software update for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that fixes one of the most widely-abused glitches in the game.

If you're currently playing Tears of the Kingdom and very much enjoy your treasure trove of ill-gotten diamonds, zonaite charges, and anything else you decided to exploit, then you may want to avoid updating your game.

The latest TotK software update version 1.1.2 is said to fix the popular duplication glitch. Yes, the very glitch that has been used to accrue thousands of rupees and scarce resources appears to have been cut and patched out. TotK is notorious for its myriad of collectibles that have infinitesimal creative uses, and the glitch was pretty much the equivalent of GTA 3 cheat codes from back in the day.

Bungie's new game Marathon won't have any sort of singleplayer campaign, but it will tell a story through its PVP multiplayer.

For the first time in a decade, Bungie has announced a new game. It's called Marathon, and no, it's not a sequel to Bungie's old-school 1990s shooter that predates Halo. It's a colorful and vibrant re-imagining of the series that's entirely focused on PVP. Marathon will have some "deep cut" lore nods to the original game, but this time around the revamp is an extraction shooter.

Instead of relying on a traditional storyline that unfolds through missions and progression, Bungie is leaning more on its core strengths for Marathon's storytelling: Atmospheric worldbuilding, environmental mystery and discovery, gameplay, and evolving world states that unlock as players do certain things in the game.

Capcom's fan-favorite fantasy series is back with Dragon's Dogma 2, a new chapter built in the powerful RE Engine.

Yesterday, Capcom made a splash in PlayStation's gaming showcase by heralding the triumphant return of its Dragon's Dogma series. The game looks to be a premiere highlight in Capcom's pedigree for high-quality games, delivering impressive visuals, visceral-looking combat, and a nice mix of mythical creatures and sword-and-sorcery tropes.

Interestingly enough, the game appears to be developed using artificial intelligence. Nestled in the official gameplay reveal on the PlayStation channel is the following line: "All of these elements are elevated further by the latest in graphics, artificial intelligence (AI) and physics technology to create a truly immersive fantasy world in Dragon's Dogma 2."

Remedy promises to deliver some mind-bending horror with Alan Wake 2, but it won't all be doom and gloom.

During yesterday's PlayStation showcase event, Remedy Entertainment was finally able to show off Alan Wake 2 gameplay. There's some distinct Resident Evil horror vibes going on, and rightly so considering Remedy says AW2 is a survival horror game. The new trailer highlighted some important story beats, like the classic 'writer's story comes true' that we've seen in Stephen King stories like Word Processor of the Gods, or The World of His Own episode of the old Twilight Zone series.

Less predictable is the psychological and positively cerebral transition sequences that were shown in the video, which underline the influence of Remedy's previous Control game. Things are certainly much more dire and horrifying this time...but Alan Wake 2's creative director Sam Lake says the game will have distinct contrast points to break things up.

Sony seeks to disrupt the PlayStation brand with the introduction of live service games and expand onto PC and mobile, but this could lead to identity issues with gaming's largest platform-holder.

Note: This is an opinion article based around specific trends, data points, and observations of the games industry.

Yesterday during its PlayStation Showcase 2023 stream, Sony announced three first-party live service titles:

Alan Wake II has sparked an interesting discussion in the gaming world: Are digital-only games okay if they are cheaper?

During yesterday's PlayStation showcase, Remedy revealed gameplay footage of Alan Wake II and confirmed an October release. The Finnish developer has been incredibly transparent about Alan Wake II and has confirmed the game will be 100% digital and won't have a physical disc-based version.

Alan Wake II becoming a digital exclusive comes as a shock to gamers and preservation enthusiasts, but Remedy justifies this in a number of ways, including the cost of the game. Alan Wake II will cost $59.99 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, which is $10 cheaper than the new $70 baseline price of games for these platforms. The game is also much cheaper on PC and will be sold at $49.99 exclusively on the Epic Games Store.

Sony has officially confirmed the existence of a new PlayStation handheld, but it's a far cry from the PS Vita.

During its PlayStation Showcase, Sony confirmed and revealed its new Project Q (aka the Q-Lite) handheld device. Project Q is coming out later this year, and features an 8-inch HD screen (this could mean 720p or 1080p, it depends) and a split DualSense controller. No release date or pricing was announced.

Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan did confirm Project Q is meant to stream games from your PS5 via Remote Play, so we may not see any kind of PlayStation Plus streaming functionality on the handheld.

Bungie's next game is a new iteration of its old classic Marathon series.

Bungie is going back to the past and tapping one of its old IPs. Today during the PlayStation showcase, the Destiny developer announced a new PVP extraction shooter based in its Marathon series. It'll be a fully cross-platform shooter across PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, complete with cross-saves and cross-play.

New data revealed by Sony indicates that most PlayStation Plus subscribers have yet to upgrade to the more expensive Extra and Premium tiers.

In a recent business strategy meeting, Sony highlighted quite a bit of info about the PlayStation brand. One interesting presentation slide revealed a breakdown of PlayStation Plus subscribers by each of the more premium tiers.

Sony confirms that its PlayStation Plus Premium tier is actually doing well, with 8 million Premium subscribers versus 6.1 million Extra subscribers. The Premium subscription, which offers access to hundreds of games as well as cloud streaming on consoles and PC, represents 17% of the total PS Plus userbase, with Extra making up 13%.

PlayStation's peripheral business is growing alongside record-breaking hardware and software earnings.

Accessories are typically an overlooked part of the games industry. Hardware sales and content revenues are at the forefront, but the peripherals market is surprisingly profitable for gaming's largest platform-holder.

Sony's efforts to expand the PS5's lineup with a range of optional accessories are paying off. The company says that its PlayStation 5 accessories range, which includes the $199 DualSense Edge controller, has become very profitable.

Sony is highly confident that the PS5 ecosystem will become the most profitable console generation in PlayStation history.

Sony Interactive Entertainment executive management has lofty ambitions for the PS5. The console remains the central anchor point to Sony's games business, and the company is accelerating its plans to provide significant worldwide console availability and deeper content expansion across the board. Sony is aggressively bullish on the PS5's success, and based on the system's performance, they have every right to be.

In a recent business strategy meeting, SIE exec Eric Lempel had very strong words to describe the PlayStation brand and the PS5 ecosystem itself.

It's official: Sony's second-gen PlayStation VR2 is drastically outpacing the original PSVR headset.

The PlayStation VR2 is off to a good start, at least when compared to first PlayStation VR headset. In a recent business stream to investors, Sony Interactive Entertainment's Epic Lempel confirmed that PSVR2 launch numbers have not only exceeded that of the PSVR1, but the new PS5-powered headset has sold nearly 600,000 units worldwide.

For reference, it took the PSVR1 headset five months to achieve 915,000 unit sales.