Gaming - Page 329

Genshin Impact has generated an incredible $4 billion in revenues in little over 2 years' time, data from Sensor Tower indicates.

Genshin Impact is one of the most popular online games on the market today, and regularly makes billions of dollars in revenues a year. The game is particularly popular in overseas regions like China and Japan, which is mostly dominated by the mobile platform. According to data from Sensor Tower, the mobile version of Genshin Impact has made over $4 billion in lifetime earnings since launching in 2020.

The info was spotted by Reuters tech correspondent Josh Ye, who notes that Genshin Impact has pulled in $4.1 billion+ in microtransaction revenues on mobiles. Previous revenues were at $3.7 billion as of September 2022, and the game had tacked on $340 million in revenues since then.

Taiwanese games rating board TESRI has once again listed an unannounced Silent Hill game, but this time there are pictures and a synopsis that spoils the plot.

A bit ago, Konami revealed a handful of new Silent Hill games including a fully-fledged remake of Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill Townfall, Silent Hill f, and a real-time interactive experience called Silent Hill Ascension. Konami has an extra game that it hasn't revealed yet, but the surprise has been spoiled by Taiwan's ratings committee.

Silent Hill: The Short Message has been rated by TESRI for the PlayStation 5 and actually includes a short snippet that outlines the plot of the game. If you've been paying attention to Silent Hill leaks, then you'll recognize The Short Message as the game that includes the bizarre post-it note monster in previously leaked images.

The Federal Trade Commission has created a new console market that conveniently removes Nintendo from the big picture.

Nintendo is and always has been a major player in the console gaming space. The company is largely credited for saving the video games industry by releasing the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) following the Crash of 1983. Since then, From the release of the Famicom in 1983 to present day, Nintendo has gone on to sell nearly 400 million consoles (including the Switch) and over 5.4 billion games. In modern times, the Nintendo Switch has handily outsold Microsoft's Xbox One and is in second-place among the Big 3's console sales.

Any gamer knows just how big Nintendo is. However, the Federal Trade Commission has isolated Microsoft and Sony into a new "high-performance console market," cutting out Nintendo from this defined group. Instead of the Big 3, it's now the Big 2.

The Microsoft-Activision merger has been approved in Chile, marking the third worldwide regulator to allow the deal to go through.

Chile's Fiscalia Nacional Economica (FNE) regulatory office has approved Microsoft's $68.7 billion merger of Activision-Blizzard, the national agency has announced. Chile's FNE greenlit the deal in Phase 1 proceedings, whereas the deal is being heavily scrutinized in Phases 2 and 3 in the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union.

The FNE finds that the merger will not substantially affect or lower competition in the country. However the swift approval is likely due to the fact that Call of Duty is not as popular in Latin America as it is in other regions--which is something that Brazilian regulator CADE also found. The FNE notes that "the relevance of Call of Duty would be comparatively less in Latin America than in other regions of the world."

Sony tells advisory firm MLex that Microsoft's 10-year Call of Duty offer to Nintendo is essentially a diversionary tactic.

Microsoft recently announced that it has offered competitors like Nintendo a binding contract to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo's respective platforms (the Switch and future hardware). Earlier this month, Sony reportedly stepped in to tell the financial experts at MLex that Microsoft's offer to Nintendo was essentially a way to deflect attention.

Sony believes that Nintendo gamers aren't interested in Call of Duty, which is arguable. It's true Nintendo has made over $60 billion from the Nintendo Switch since the system launched in 2017, all without Call of Duty, but the platform does indeed have very gory and mature games like Doom. These games are not among the best-selling titles on Switch, though, as Nintendo's more family-friendly first-party titles make the most sales.

Sony is starting 2023 on the right foot with three great PlayStation Plus freebies available to subscribers next month.

January's free PS Plus games include some awesome yesteryear games. We're not getting anything like day-and-date Xbox Game Pass titles, but the lineup should keep players busy for some time.

The games include one of the more active and popular live games on the market complemented by an indie hit as well as one of the best Star Wars titles ever made.

Gran Turismo is officially the best-selling first-party PlayStation franchise in history, and it may take a while longer before it shows up on PC.

A bit ago, Polyphony Digital CEO Kazunori Yamauchi appeared to say that Gran Turismo 7 could arrive on PC. This led to a lot of speculation that the studio was actively exploring opportunities to bring the landmark racing series to PC for the first time, and possibly even developing and/or optimizing a PC version.

Now Yamauchi clarifies these reports by saying Polyphony is not actively working on a PC version of Gran Turismo 7 or any other Gran Turismo game.

It looks like Arkane could be developing more content for its new Deathloop franchise, possibly a fully-fledged sequel or a new expansion.

A recent interview with Deathloop voice actors Jason Kelley, who plays Colt, and Ozioma Akagha, who plays Julianna, may have confirmed that more games and experiences in the lauded grindhouse series may be on the way.

"Do you know the codenames or anything they were using for the game?" the interviewer asked.

Nintendo was reportedly working on a mid-gen Switch upgrade with boosted specs, but the device may have been cancelled for a fully-fledged next-gen Switch model.

We've been reporting on an upgraded Switch for years now--all the way back when Nintendo patented that curious Supplemental Computing Device (SCD) add-on. Throughout that time we've seen lots of rumors pop up regarding a new enhanced Nintendo Switch, including mention of a DLSS-enabled Switch found in an NVIDIA leak and that the new Switch could tap the new T239 Tegra chip built on the 8nm Orin SoC. Sources have also told Bloomberg that new Switch devkits have been released.

Now we have another interesting report on Nintendo's plans for its next Switch. According to Digital Foundry's John Linneman, Nintendo originally had tentative plans to create an upgraded Switch but the model was abandoned (possibly due to significant chip supply issues from COVID-19). Game developer sources told Linneman that Nintendo wanted to create a mid-cycle Switch upgrade--supposedly similar in comparative power as a PS4 Pro is to a PS4--but the project was cancelled so that Nintendo could focus a new next-generation Switch model instead.

A few days ago The New Yorker published an in-depth article on HBO's new The Last of Us television series airing in January, and nestled in the feature was comments about Naughty Dog's upcoming game projects. In the interview, studio co-president Neil Druckmann indicated that the new game was more like a television series than any other game the studio has made so far. The game wasn't specified, of course, and Druckmann has since clarified the quote.

"It's about making our games in an even more collaborative manner! Stoked to show you our projects as soon as we can!" Druckmann said on Twitter.

At the time of writing it appears that Naughty Dog could be working on at least two projects, and they both may or may not be related to The Last of Us universe. Druckmann seems to confirm this when he says projects plural.

Atari's hardware revenues crash by 91% as the company suspends manufacturing of its VCS console.

Atari recently published its half-year earnings for the fiscal year ending March 2023, and the results show a substantial increase in total losses. The once-mighty gaming giant reported a heavy 91% reduction in hardware and "cartridge" sales (a curious term that isn't defined in the document), with this segment generating only 200,000 Euros (about $197,174). Atari notes the drop is because of the underperformance of the VCS console in the retail sector as well, and it should be noted that Atari has suspended production of the consoles and is expected to resume manufacturing in 2023.

According to the figures, Atari made more from blockchain (about 700,000 Euros) than it did from its video games hardware. As you'd expect, Atari makes most of its revenues from games, which includes three new titles that were released in the year as well as a vast library of catalog releases. Atari made 2.8 million Euros (about $2.71 million) from its Games segment. Total revenues were 4.3 million Euros as compared to 6 million Euros from last year, primarily because of the significant drop in hardware earnings.

In an internal memo to employees, Sony Interactive Entertainment President Jim Ryan appears to say he is not worried or fazed by Xbox Game Pass...but the competitor should be worried about Microsoft's value-oriented subscription.

The games industry is rife with disruptive trends that ultimately end up defining an entire generation. We've seen this happen with microtransactions, live services, battle passes, and free-to-play that wraps all of these things together. Now the latest trend is subscription services, and it's all thanks to Xbox Game Pass, a model that is largely seen as the major value-oriented force in the industry.

Xbox Game Pass cannot and should not be ignored. Sony has responded to Xbox Game Pass by making their own PlayStation Plus service more like Game Pass and mimicking the popular and profitable business model--adding value through access to tons of video games for a monthly, quarterly, and yearly fee.

Final Fantasy 16 should be a true next-gen spectacle that leverages the full power of the PlayStation 5's higher-end capabilities.

First-party games usually look the best on any console, whether it's games like Gears of War 5 on the Xbox Series X or Horizon Forbidden West on the PS5. Square Enix is promising to make Final Fantasy XVI shine on PS5 and based on the screenshots and footage we've seen, it could be one of the best-looking third-party games on the platform.

During a recent Final Fantasy XIV livestream, Yoshi-P had some interesting things to say about the development of Final Fantasy XVI and how it will look and play on the PS5. The producer says that FF16 will essentially be a testament to the PlayStation 5's enthusiast-grade performance.

To make a point to the FTC, Microsoft punctuates Xbox's small console market presence by revealing interesting sales data for its gaming hardware.

A bit ago, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it plans to block Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Now Microsoft has officially responded to the FTC's claims with a lengthy 37-page document that dissects the regulator's comments.

Nestled in this document is a curious pie chart with console sales percentages. The data lists how many consoles the Big 3--Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft--sold throughout 2021. Since both Sony and Nintendo publish their respective hardware shipments we are potentially able to extrapolate how many Xbox consoles that Microsoft shipped in 2021.

Polyphony Digital has updated total Gran Turismo game sales, and we've charted that against other major first-party PlayStation franchises.

Sony has some of the most enduring franchises in gaming, but many of its new PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5-era titles have helped supercharge these game series with tens of millions of copies sold across the world.

Looking at sales figures provided by Sony though a series of blog posts, developer updates, and earnings reports, we have a good idea of what PlayStation's top-selling franchises currently are.

From the PlayStation 1 to the PlayStation 5, the Gran Turismo is officially Sony's best-selling first-party franchise.

Gran Turismo has topped Sony's charts as PlayStation's most popular video game series. The franchise has sold a whopping 90 million units worldwide since it was first released a quarter of a century ago, developer Polyphony Digital president and series creator Kazunori Yamauchi has confirmed.

FromSoftware still doesn't understand why everyone loves Elden Ring so much, but the studio is afraid to analyze the game's success and wants to move forward with new projects.

As we said in our review, Elden Ring is one of the best games of 2022 and is actually one of the best open-world RPGs ever made. Apparently many other people thought the same thing because Elden Ring has won multiple game of the year awards, including GOTY at The Game Awards and was voted as the best game by Sony and users during the official PlayStation partners awards in Japan.

When asked if FromSoftware will try to recreate Elden Ring with a new game, FromSoftware's Hidetaka Miyazaki says the team isn't interested in even attempting to capture lightning in a bottle again.

It's official: Hideo Kojima is making a film, and it's a big deal for the creator...and for gaming as a whole.

Hideo Kojima is a sponge for pop culture entertainment and is always soaking up both mainline and obscure media. The auteur is known for his love of film and music--longtime fans will see shades of iconic movies in Kojima's work, from the obvious Snake Pliskin influences in Metal Gear to the more subtle and somber horror-thriller themes in Death Stranding. Now after many years, Kojima gets to live his dreams by creating his own feature-length film.

Kojima Productions is currently working with Hammerstone Studios (Barbarian) to develop and produce a film based on Death Stranding. Interestingly enough, PlayStation Productions may not be involved in the film, despite Sony's close involvement the production and distribution of both Death Stranding 1 and 2 on PlayStation consoles.

A devkit for Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro has been torn down publicly for the first time, revealing a substantial heat pipe, 16GB of GDDR5 memory, and a 16nm APU design.

Gamers Nexus just got a hold of one of the most elusive pieces of tech and tore it down for everyone to see. The PlayStation 4 Pro's devkit has been discussed in private forums and there are various photos of the Neo devkit floating around, but now we have a near 30-minute dissection of the system itself in a public YouTube video.

Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro devkit is meant to be top secret and no one besides developers are supposed to discuss features of the higher-end console platform, but the teardown reveals some interesting things. For one, the Neo devkit has 16GB of unified GDDR5 RAM in an array of 16x 1GB GDDR5 chips, presumably to mimic the PS4/PS4 Pro's 8GB system memory while also having extra memory for debugging and testing.

The Federal Trade Commission orders Epic Games to pay $520 million in fines for violating children's privacy and deploying deceptive practices to "trick" children and teens into making purchases.

"The FTC's action against Epic involves two separate record-breaking settlements. As part of a proposed federal court order filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC, Epic will pay a $275 million monetary penalty for violating the COPPA Rule-the largest penalty ever obtained for violating an FTC rule."

Fortnite developer Epic games is hot water right now in the United States. The company, who maintains one of the most popular video games ever made, has been ordered by the FTC to pay over half a billion dollars in relief for two major penalties. The first is a violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The FTC finds that Epic Games collected personal information from children playing Fortnite without parental consent or notification, and that Fortnite's real-time voice and text chat was also a violation of COPPA.