Gaming - Page 321

Legendary gaming figure Shigeru Miyamoto believes that the distinct Nintendo spirit will continue long after he is gone.

Nintendo without Shigeru Miyamoto is almost unthinkable. Miyamoto's influence undeniably helped Nintendo go from an obscure card-maker into the games titan that it is today; Back in the 1980s, Miyamoto created characters that would define Nintendo's billion-dollar franchises like Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, and the world's most-recognized gaming icon, Mario. In short, Miyamoto is is to Nintendo as Ralph McQuarrie is to Star Wars. Some would argue that Miyamoto doesn't just work at Nintendo, that he is Nintendo.

So what happens when Miyamoto retires? The creator is 70 years old now and currently serves as a representative director for Nintendo. The real-life Mario maker says that Nintendo will be in good hands after the changing of the guard.

Shortly after selling its Western games divisions to the Embracer Group for $300 million, Square Enix is now consolidating parts of its domestic Japanese games business.

Square Enix today announced that it will re-absorb Luminous Productions, which includes the core teams that developed Final Fantasy XV and the new Forspoken action RPG. The Japanese publisher formed Luminous Productions in March 2018 as a wholly-owned subsidiary led by Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata, however Tabata left in November 2018 and FFXV's planned DLC was cancelled.

Luminous went on to work on Forspoken, which was released earlier this year. It's unknown how well the game has performed or whether or not Square Enix's decision to re-absorb Luminous Productions had anything to do with Forspoken's sales. Luminous will now work on new games for the publisher instead of its own projects.

European Commission vice president Margrethe Vestager has delivered new comments on the Microsoft-Activision merger and gives advice to other worldwide regulators.

Regulators have brought the heat in the Microsoft-Activision merger case, with the Federal Trade Commission, the Competition and Markets Authority, and European Commission all opening up thorough investigations into the acquisition. We've seen preliminary determinations from the UK's CMA agency and the FTC plans to bring the merger to court in an administrative hearing.

The European Commission has privately delivered a Statement of Objections against the merger and is closely scrutinizing the complexity of the deal for possible antitrust concerns. While the Commission has yet to publish anything outside of a Phase 2 announcement from November 2022, the EC's Margrethe Vestager cautions regulators to take their time with the merger and not to rush to be the first to make a decision.

Good news: Square Enix still wants to release Final Fantasy XVI on PC. Bad news: No one knows how long that will take.

Today Square Enix dropped a ton of new Final Fantasy XVI info on the PlayStation Blog, outlining key details about combat, difficulty mechanics, characters and history, and an innovative new feature that could help one of the most boring aspects of RPGs. The publisher also clarified its plans for a PC version of Final Fantasy XVI.

According to FFXVI producer Yoshi-P, the studio simply does not have a PC port ready yet. Sony has purchased exclusivity rights to Final Fantasy XVI for six months, meaning the game won't launch on any other platform outside of the PS5 until at least December 222, 2023.

Final Fantasy XVI is revolutionizing one of the most boring parts of any RPG: The dreaded lore codex.

RPGs, especially medieval fantasy ones, typically have a ton of lore to digest. The worlds themselves depend on a rich and compelling history of characters, events, and often mythical gods and deities. The result is often a grand spectacle of might and magic that's replete with real-world historical references.

There's just one issue: The lore isn't always delivered through gameplay or interactions. RPGs typically separate lore into two parts: gameplay and the dreaded codex. Some of the most significant and interesting events of an RPG world are told in written format, requiring gamers to read entries in a kind of UI-based database within a menu screen.

PC Game Pass, the PC version of Xbox Game Pass, is expanding to 40 new countries across the globe.

Microsoft today announced that its popular value-oriented Xbox Game Pass subscription will soon considerably grow its global presence. The company says that PC Game Pass preview is now available in 40 new countries for the first time ever, bringing the service's total worldwide availability to 86 countries.

It's important to remember this expansion only relates to half of the Game Pass subscription. Xbox Game Pass is delivered on both Xbox consoles and Windows PCs, and this announcement is for the PC Game Pass version.

Xbox will continue to exist if the Activision merger is not approved, Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer says.

The Microsoft-Activision merger is so big that it could ultimately shape the future of the games industry and help the Xbox brand unlock it's full potential. With the inclusion of Activision Blizzard King properties, Microsoft would effectively own more than a dozen billion-dollar video game franchises, including the $31 billion Call of Duty series. The sheer power behind the buyout--in both the $68.7 billion price and overall business scope--has prompted significant regulatory scrutiny from worldwide antitrust agencies

While regulators are trying to their best to determine what happens if the merger goes through, Microsoft's Phil Spencer has a few quick responses to a potential merger block. Spencer indicates that Xbox may keep operating as it always has if the merger is not approved by regulators.

It's happening: FromSoftware and Bandai Namco have officially announced Elden Ring's first major expansion.

Today marks a special occassion for Tarnished everywhere. Roughly one year after release, FromSoftware has announced Elden Ring's new Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.

Next to nothing is know about Shadow of the Erdtree. We don't know when it's releasing, but we do know that it will be available on all platforms, including PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The expansion's key art gives some clues, though, and it looks like the Erdtree has lost its light and cast a very ominous shadow over the Lands Between.

Reports indicate that influential games industry figures believe Microsoft could sell the Xbox games division if the Activision merger is blocked.

Microsoft wants to buy Activision Blizzard King for $68.7 billion. Shareholders and a large portion of gamers want the deal to go through. Regulators like the FTC, CMA, and European Commission are heavily scrutinizing the deal as it is believed that Activision's 8x separate billion-dollar franchises, including mega-hits like the $31 billion Call of Duty franchise and mobile giant Candy Crush, could help shape the future for the games industry.

What happens if the deal is blocked? As per current contracts, we know that Microsoft will have to pay Activision a $3 billion fee if the merger is not completed before June. It's likely that Microsoft and Activision will negotiate an extension if it looks like the FTC has a strong administrative case, but the consensus is that the FTC will withdraw the case and set out remedies and concessions to close the deal.

The original Half-Life from Valve was released in 1998 for PC, an iconic and groundbreaking first-person shooter that would serve as a milestone release to help shape the genre over the next few decades. It introduced us to the crowbar-wielding scientist Gordon Freedom amid a full-scale alien invasion at the mysterious Black Mesa Research Facility. Half-Life would also pave the way for the multiplayer hit Counter-Strike, which is still one of the most popular competitive shooters.

And now the classic shooter has been given the ray-tracing makeover treatment via a new mod that offers real-time path-tracing for Half-Life (1998). The results are impressive and similar to what we saw from NVIDIA with its Quake II RTX mod from a few years ago in that it replaces all in-game lighting with ray-traced goodness.

As per the release trailer for the mod, we can see that the original 1998 textures and models haven't changed. They're still as blocky and chunky as ever, but the difference RT brings to Half-Life is undoubtedly impressive.

Gamers have downloaded over 44 billion gigabytes from Steam -- that's enough for a handful of Warzone installs!

Valve's new Steam Year in Review 2022 stats show incredible growth for the platform. Steam grew to new heights throughout 2022, breaking previous concurrent user records last year (Valve just broke these again with an astronomical 33 million users online at once).

Tons of new users also showed up to Valve's storefront to buy games; The company says that an average 83,000 new users logged in to buy games every day of 2022. We can only imagine what Valve's revenue sheets look like.

Valve's innovative Steam Deck handheld PC turns 1 year old today--how time flies!

One year ago, Valve changed the world of gaming with an affordable PC that fits in your hands. The Steam Deck represents the first major union of PC power and a handheld form factor from a storefront operator like Valve. The result is a powerful machine that seamlessly plays a significant portion of Steam games wherever you are.

The Steam Deck also made one of the most important advancements that any gaming platform could have, let alone a handheld. Valve specifically designed a suspend and resume feature that's very similar to the Quick Resume function on the Xbox Series X. This way gamers can instantly jump right back into their game sessions without having to load a save file. This is something that modern PCs don't even have outside of emulators.

Microsoft will be required to release or make available some version of Call of Duty onto the current-generation Switch console in order to fulfill its promise to bring the series to 150 million more consumers.

Microsoft has signed 10-year agreements to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo platforms and NVIDIA's GeForce Now service. The tech giant has told the public and the press that the licensing deals will bring Call of Duty to 150 million more gamers--a number that combines the Switch install base (122.5 million) and NVIDIA's GeForce Now members (25 million).

According to our findings, the two deals could benefit Microsoft by exponentially expanding the reach of key Xbox games, including Activision's $31 billion Call of Duty franchise. There appears to be very little downside to these deals except for one potential snag: the hardware performance limitations of the current-gen Switch.

Microsoft has found a way to answer regulatory concerns with a strategy that significantly benefits the Xbox business.

There's more than meets the eye with Microsoft's recent 10-year Call of Duty deals. The company has signed contracts to offer Call of Duty on competing platforms like Nintendo systems and NVIDIA's GeForce Now streaming service for a full decade. Microsoft is attempting to satisfy regulatory concerns in a way that is favorable to itself, the two competing games companies, and global consumers.

The deals are particularly advantageous for Microsoft, who will see its games and content expand to new audiences across cloud gaming and Nintendo's uniquely merged handheld-console market.

Following an important European Commission hearing in Brussels, Microsoft President Brad Smith comments on how new access remedies could help get the Microsoft-Activision approved by regulators.

Microsoft has attempted to satisfy regulators' Call of Duty exclusivity worries by making behind-the-scenes contractual commitments to bring the $31 billion franchise to competing platforms. Microsoft has signed deals with both Nintendo and NVIDIA to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo's consoles and NVIDIA's GeForce Now game streaming service. These deals represent what regulators call access remedies, which are forms of behavioral remedies--or adjustments in market behavior that favors competition--that regulators may impose as conditions for approval. Microsoft is trying to get a head start of potential remedy talks by offering access remedies on terms that suit both itself and competitors.

Company management is confident that the strategy will advance merger proceedings. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Microsoft President Brad Smith said that the deals could help provide a "clear path" to approval.

Nintendo has delivered an official statement that outlines why it will skip this year's E3 show.

Earlier this year reports indicated that Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony would all skip this year's Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3). Now Nintendo has issued a comment that confirms it will not be at E3 2023 while also clarifying why it won't be at the event:

"We approach our involvement in any event on a case-by-case basis and are always considering various ways to engage with our fans. Since this year's E3 show didn't fit into our plans, we have made the decision to not participate. However, we have been and continue to be a strong supporter of the ESA and E3."

BioWare lays out an ambitious goals to simultaneously simplify and add depth to Dragon Age Dreadwolf's skill system.

Skill trees in Dragon Age games aren't really all that complicated. The trees are segmented into combat roles--two-handed, ice, cold, bow attacks, etc--and skills are typically broken up into two types: Active and passive. The trees in Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age Inquisition are relatively straightforward and aren't too complex to understand.

BioWare wants to keep things simple while also trying something new with Dragon Age Dreadwolf. In a recent Dragon Age update post, BioWare says one of the main goals with Dreadwolf is to make every progression point feel meaningful. Essentially the devs want to make every choice you make with skill unlocks feel like it has a tangible effect on the game. Every skill, passive, or boost should increase stats, capability, and the overall sense of power that players feel in the game.

Larian heads off growing controversy by answering two very important questions: Yes, Baldur's Gate 3 is coming to Xbox, and no, the game is not exclusive to PlayStation.

The recent Microsoft-Activision merger has ignited fresh controversy about platform exclusivity, namely Sony's penchant for buying up platform exclusivity rights for big games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake and the upcoming Final Fantasy 16. Yesterday, Baldur's Gate 3 was showcased as part of Sony's PlayStation State of Play event to confirm a PS5 release. Larian, the devs behind Baldur's Gate 3, did not list Xbox as a release platform on the trailer or their official website.

Everyone assumed this meant that Baldur's Gate 3 was exclusive to PlayStation 5 consoles. That's usually the case when a platform is omitted from a developer's promo materials--third-party exclusivity is usually quiet as to not encourage console warring. This time around gamers jumped the gun and now Larian has officially confirmed that they are (and have been) working on an Xbox version of Baldur's Gate 3. This version just won't be available at launch due to technical difficulties with split-screen co-op.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav casually spoils one of the biggest surprises of 2023 by confirming a new Mortal Kombat game's release timing.

In a recent Q4 earnings call, WBD's CEO David Zaslav stole NetherRealm's thunder by announcing Mortal Kombat 12 will launch this year.

On the topic of WB Games, Zaslav said: "There's lots more to come including the highly anticipated Mortal Kombat 12 and Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League games also set for release this year with ambitious launch projections."

Sony has announced the free PlayStation Plus games for March 2023 during its State of Play showcase.

March's PlayStation Plus freebies will help give new life to EA's unsuccessful shooter--the online-only Battlefield 2042 live game will be available for all PlayStation Plus subscribers next month. EA isn't quite ready to make Battlefield 2042 free-to-play, which is something we argued that needs to happen in order for the game to turn itself around, however DICE has released several new updates and is now on season 4. Sony and EA will offer both the PS4 and PS5 versions of Battlefield 2042 on PS Plus.

The other PS Plus titles include the well-reviewed Code Vein from Bandai Namco--which is also on the PS Plus Game Catalog for Extra and Premium subscribers--and Minecraft Dungeons, a dungeon-crawling RPG with Diablo-style ARPG action and an isometric view. Both of these games are the PS4 versions.