Gaming - Page 326

U.S. Republicans say that Xbox is "going woke," but the console is just making it easier for consumers to save money.

Gaming is often used as a crude blunt instrument in political battles. We've seen legislators try to blame real-world violence on video games for decades now despite the fact that only recently gun violence has reached an all-time historical peak in the United States. Manufactured controversies are nothing new for politics, and now Republicans are trying to pull Xbox video games consoles into a war of woke-ism.

In what I can only assume is an absurd quest for ratings and constant pressure to drum up drama, U.S. Republicans and Fox News are stretching the limits of willful ignorance to peddle new ridiculous claims. It all has to do with Xbox's new power-saving mode.

Arkane's latest game Redfall is like if Stephen King worked on a Destiny game...and that makes it extremely compelling.

Game developer Arkane is known for creating amazing worlds. Prey 2017 was one of the best games I've ever played because of the Talos-I ship, which was basically a world in itself. The studio's next game, Redfall, continues this tradition and really tests the style and skill of Arkane's teams.

Today's Xbox stream delivered some dazzling visuals of Redfall, showing a haunted coastal town with promising eldritch adventuring and compelling environmental storytelling. The island town is full of cultists and ghastly ghouls set in an atmosphere that looks and feels like something Stephen King would think up.

Blizzard is bringing eight new runewords to Diablo 2, but most of them may not actually be used all that much.

Diablo 2 Resurrected is getting another batch of new runewords aimed at melee builds and utilizing unpopular runes. The result is an interesting and eclectic mix of abilities, however the runewords could have a hard time gaining traction.

The most noteworthy runewords are Hustle (Shael+Ko+Eld), which adds 50% faster run walk for armors and a 5% chance to cast a level 9 Burst of Speed ability when socketed into weapons. The lack of any other useful stats makes this armor an extremely niche item, and the lower enhanced damage effectively removes any real utility for Hustle as a weapon.

Former FTC Commissioner William Kovacic says that Lina Khan and the current FTC administration is trying to reset merger policy in high-profile antitrust cases like the Microsoft-Activision merger.

The Federal Trade Commission has been quite vocal in its opposition to Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard King. The FTC has issued formal complaints that the merger would give Microsoft unfair advantages in multiple segments, including multi-game subscription (Xbox Game Pass), cloud gaming, and potentially even mobile gaming--Activision does, after all, have eight franchises that have all made $1 billion each, including Call of Duty, whose lifetime revenues exceed $31 billion.

Various antitrust lawyers and analysts believe the FTC will have a hard time proving antitrust in this vertical merger, namely because Microsoft owning Activision Blizzard King will not shut down the console, PC, or mobile gaming environment, nor does the merger have the power to squeeze out competitors like Sony and Nintendo, both of which are entrenched in these markets with their own lucrative billion-dollar hardware, software, and service-based ecosystems.

Bungie is making one of the best changes in Destiny 2 that will alleviate lots of extra tedium.

Live RPG games with any sort of skills, crafting, or gear are one half gameplay and one half inventory management. That's the case with Destiny 2, whose myriad of updates constantly shift mechanics around and make things into a complicated game of juggling materials and dismantling unwanted gear. Think of all the time we've spent scrapping items...

Now Bungie is removing a big portion of Destiny 2's most unenjoyable moments. Blue engrams are being removed from the game. Yes, it's finally happening and Guardians all over the globe are happy for the adjustments. No more full mailboxes of useless blues, no more dismantling. It's a win-win.

Google and NVIDIA are concerned about Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision-Blizzard for $68.7 billion, and have provided key evidence to the Federal Trade Commission regarding a possible unfair advantage.

Google and NVIDIA both have sizable stakes in the world of video games. NVIDIA commands the largest share of graphics cards that help power the PC gaming market and also runs its own cloud game streaming service, GeForce Now. Google pulls in billions every year from its mobile Play Store and had a brief stint with game streaming in its now-defunct Stadia service.

Now both gaming titans have outlined their concerns with the Microsoft-Activision merger. Sources tell Bloomberg that Google and NVIDIA have laid out their thoughts on the Microsoft-Activision merger and have also given the FTC information that reinforces one of the major concerns that regulators have with the deal.

Media outlets Giant Bomb and GameSpot have been hit with layoffs as Fandom takes control over the two websites.

Fandom, the Wikipedia of the nerd world, purchased popular games media sites Giant Bomb and GameSpot from Red Ventures in October of last year. Back then we reported that no one was losing the jobs, and that was technically true at the time. But that isn't the case now.

Now three months later, workers from both Giant Bomb and GameSpot have been let go. The layoffs include writers as well as graphic designers and video producers that were responsible for actual shows, with many saying that the separations were a complete surprise. Games media veterans have banded together to help find roles for those affected. Some like IGN's Kat Bailey, who previously ran US Gamer before it was shut down, notes that GameSpot in particular has great traffic and consistently strong views on its video content.

UPDATE: 343 Industries studio leader Pierre Hintze confirms that the team will continue working on Halo games.

343 Industries is reportedly no longer actively developing Halo games and will instead be a gatekeeper that oversees new Halo games from third-party developers.

Microsoft recently laid off 10,000 workers including Xbox game developers like 343 Industries, Bethesda Softworks, and The Coalition. 343 Industries was apparently affected the most by the layoffs with the studio's workers essentially being halved: "Along with almost half of the staff at 343, my team and I were impacted by the layoffs at Microsoft," Lead technical mocap animator Angel Wylie said on LinkedIn.

Ubisoft developers angrily call out company CEO Yves Guillemot for controversial comments that damaged employee morale.

Ubisoft isn't doing great right now. The company has cancelled 7 games and shocked investors with a 500 million Euro loss target for FY23. If that wasn't enough, Ubisoft's CEO Yves Guillemot kicked the hornet's nest and aggravated lots of his workers with comments made in an internal memo. Developers have pushed back and now Guillemot has apologized.

In the memo, Guillemot told developers "the ball is in your court" to turn Ubisoft's fortunes around. It was meant to be an inspired speech that rallied and emboldened developers to work harder. Instead, developers who had been pressured for years to deliver massive games amid company-wide sexual harassment controversies saw the comments as a slight.

Crystal Dynamics has reportedly ended development of all new content for the failed Marvel's Avengers live game, sources have told Exputer.

Marvel's Avengers was an expensive bomb that shook Square Enix's financials. The game's failure was a big reason that Square Enix sold the developer and shed itself of the Marvel license. Now it looks like Crystal Dynamics and the Embracer Group aren't so enthusiastic about continuing development of new Avengers content.

According to a new report from Exputer, Crystal Dynamics plans to announce that it will no longer be supporting the Avengers live game with new content. It's not that the creators don't have a bunch of updates and DLC actually in development--Crystal Dynamics apparently had a bunch of ideas like new modes, features, boss battles and even major campaign expansions planned for Avengers. It's just that content has effectively been cancelled likely because the game isn't performing well enough to justify the expenses.

The Switch is still going strong after seven years of sales and Nintendo plans to keep momentum going by accelerating hardware production.

Nintendo's Switch platform has been incredibly lucrative. The system has shipped over 114 million units and has already likely beaten the PlayStation 4's and the Game Boy's lifetime shipments throughout holiday 2022. Nintendo has made $62.26 billion from Switch hardware, software, and subscription sales so far and some of the company's best-selling games have been on the Switch itself.

With numbers like these it's no surprise that Nintendo would want to keep the Switch's strong sales going for as long as possible. But how long can Nintendo ride the wave?

The new Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition is now available on Steam...but the game is still apparently buggy on PC.

Over a year after the game's original launch, the latest GTA remastered collection has arrived on Steam. On first glance it looks like a great deal. Rockstar is currently holding a special sale and entire collection has been discounted by 50% and costs $29.99 on Steam, reflecting recent sales prices from the holiday season.

Sadly it looks like neither Rockstar Games nor the collection's actual developer Grove Street Games have released new update patches for the PC version. Users are reporting this is the exact same version that is available on the Rockstar Launcher, complete with wonky animations, bugs, and some optimization problems. The game apparently doesn't run great on the Steam Deck either with significant frame rate fluctuations in unlocked FPS modes on the handheld-PC hybrid.

Former Halo developers speak out as Microsoft lays off key 343 Industries staff as part of its mass layoff of 10,000 workers.

Today many Halo developers have been let go from 343 Industries. Microsoft is shedding thousands of employees so it can "do more with less" and reduce overall costs as the tech market slumps. The layoffs punctuate years of turbulence at 343 Industries, and some former Halo devs are blaming Microsoft for the unnecessary issues.

"As a Halo fan I'm really tired of Microsoft business practices and policies slowly killing the thing I love," Halo 5 developer Tyler Owens said on Twitter. Owens worked on Halo 5 Guardians and Halo 5 Forge on PC.

Microsoft's contractor policy could slow down game development at Activision-Blizzard if the proposed merger goes through.

In our previous coverage I've expressed thoughts on how Microsoft's business plan could significantly disrupt Activision-Blizzard earnings by offering key premium games on Xbox Game Pass. I've also discussed that Microsoft could lay off many Activision Blizzard King employees post-merger, especially in "cost synergy" areas like marketing and HR. Now another interesting point could be worth exploring: How would Microsoft affect game development at Activision Blizzard King?

Microsoft's recent 10,000 employee layoff spree could give us a few clues. On Twitter, ex-Halo developer Tyler Owens reminded me of Microsoft's contractor policy, which got the wheels turning. "Between the contracting policies they abuse for tax incentives," Owens said, expressing frustration due to all of the 343i employees that were recently laid off.

343 Industries has been 'hit hard' by Microsoft's recent mass layoffs, sources have told Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

Microsoft has announced that it will lay off 10,000 employees across multiple divisions including Xbox gaming. The layoffs will affect first-party game development studios and branches like Elder Scrolls and Fallout developer Bethesda Softworks, who is ramping up for Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI, and embattled Halo developer 343 Industries. Sources have told Bloomberg that 343i may have been significantly affected by the restructuring.

The news comes years after 343 Industries drew ire from the Halo faithful for Halo Infinite's tumultuous launch. The game released in 2020 with many features missing, some of which, like split-screen co-op, were cancelled outright. It appears Halo Infinite's campaign team was downsized--which could eliminate any possibility of story-based DLC for Infinite.

Sony and Housemarque have released spec requirements for Returnal's incoming PC port, and they're more lenient than other newer games.

Want to try Returnal but aren't sure if your rig will support the game? Gamers with older hardware can breathe easy: Returnal's PC specs aren't extremely demanding. Users who are still rocking GTX 10 series GPUs can still get away with 1080p 60FPS in Returnal, but like any other game on the market today you'll need a hefty hardware boost to hit 4K 60FPS in Housemarque's bullet hell survival game.

Returnal's minimum PC specs will deliver 720p 60FPS gaming on the low preset. We're talking bottom of the barrel here. To play the game you'll need at least an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or an AMD Radeon RX 580, an Intel Core i5-6400 or an AMD Ryzen 5 1500X, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and 60GB of HDD or SSD space.

Microsoft will lay off 10,000 workers as it attempts to cut costs and reduce spending during an uncertain economic environment.

Microsoft today announced that it plans to fire 10,000 employees from now until March 31, 2023 across its various divisions and segments, from app development and marketing to entertainment and cloud. Xbox video game developers at first-party studios like Bethesda Softworks will also be affected by the layoffs, sources tell Bloomberg, despite the Xbox games division generating a record-breaking $16.22 billion last fiscal year.

Here's what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in the announcement: "First, we will align our cost structure with our revenue and where we see customer demand. Today, we are making changes that will result in the reduction of our overall workforce by 10,000 jobs through the end of FY23 Q3. This represents less than 5 percent of our total employee base, with some notifications happening today."

Ubisoft workers may go on strike in protest of controversial comments made by company CEO Yves Guillemot.

Ubisoft is not in a good place right now. Years ago, the company's internal culture was rocked by a scathing sexual harrassment and discrimination controversy, putting many high-ranking Ubisoft executives under the crosshair. Developer morale was damaged in the process and CEO Yves Guillemot was criticized for not taking action on the issues sooner.

Now Ubisoft's CEO is in hot water again, this time for further hurting worker confidence and morale. Guillemot reportedly said that developers, not executive management, are responsible for Ubisoft's future: "The ball is in your court to deliver this line-up on time and at the expected level of quality, and show everyone what we are capable of achieving," Guillemot said in an internal email to employees that was acquired by Kotaku.

Walking into a Porsche dealership to buy a gaming chair sounds like a phrase you'd type into an AI image generator for a bit of fun. As it turns out, the new Porsche gaming chair is real and expensive to boot - with the new RECARO × Porsche Gaming Chair Limited Edition launching at a retail price of USD 2499.

Now, that might make you do a double take, but it's worth noting that this collaboration is exciting. RECARO is a company dating back to the early days of cars, where it even designed the seats found in the iconic Porsche 911. So you're getting a premium slice of gaming chair action here. And as it made its debut at the recent virtual 24-hour Le Mans race, it's been designed with esports and racing games in mind.

Which comes across in the product's description.

Square Enix's new interesting-looking fantasy IP Forspoken demands some serious PC horsepower.

Japanese games typically aren't very well optimized on PC, and that seems to be the case for a few Square Enix titles (remember NieR: Automata's issues?) Now it looks like the publisher's latest game Forspoken could be affected as well, which makes sense considering Luminous Productions titles are pretty intensive.

The devs just released Forspoken's PC spec requirements and they're pretty hefty. The game will require at minimum an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB of VRAM, an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 CPU, and 16GB of RAM to deliver...720p at 30FPS. That's rough performance but the spec-perf ratio reflects how the PC gaming world is moving on.