Gaming - Page 333

NVIDIA has announced that Portal with RTX will be launching on December 8, acting as an upgraded remaster of the original Portal made by Valve. NVIDIA pushed the remastered Portal with RTX during its GeForce RTX 40 reveal event in September, and now it's nearly here.

Portal with RTX has NVIDIA's new Ada Lovelace GPU-powered DLSS 3 technology flowing through it, but if you don't have a GeForce RTX 4090 or GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card... don't worry, you've still got DLSS 2.0 to give you more image quality or frames per second, whichever you prefer.

You can expect a huge upgrade in visuals with Portal RTX featuring full ray tracing support and beefed up graphics for that beautiful 4K gaming experience, with NVIDIA recommending its GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card to achieve 4K 60FPS... and that's with DLSS 3 enabled. NVIDIA recommends an Intel Core i7-12700K or AMD Ryzen 9 5900 processor with 32GB of RAM, for 4K 60FPS for the Ultra preset on Portal with RTX.

Sony claims to know Microsoft's true motivations behind the Activision merger, and delivers a bizarre statement to UK regulators.

Sony is fighting the $68.7 billion Microsoft-Activision merger tooth and nail. The industry market leader has issued a 29-page response to the UK's Competition for Markets Authority that outlines Sony's major issues with the merger. Sony's arguments mostly align with what the CMA has already said, but some rather strange comments have sifted through.

One of the most audacious claims is that Microsoft apparently wants to make Sony more like Nintendo. This seems rather preposterous. Sony argues that by acquiring (and potentially withholding) key Activision franchises like Call of Duty that the PlayStation-maker would be implicitly downgraded and no longer be such a close competitor to the Xbox business. This plan, Sony says, is Microsoft's true strategy with the deal.

Merging with Microsoft could substantially disrupt Activision's revenues and/or profitability due to Xbox Game Pass integration.

Microsoft has been very clear on its motivations for wanting to buy Activision Blizzard King for $68.7 billion. The main rationale behind the deal is to bolster Xbox's billion-dollar digital empire through mobile gaming, substantial value boosts in Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, increased revenues from more service-based games and content, and substantially increased monetization potential through the publisher's incredibly popular franchises.

While the bulk of Activision Blizzard King relies heavily on monetization across a fleet of digital-based billion-dollar IPs like Candy Crush, Overwatch, and Warcraft, the Activision segment in particular is still quite reliant on full game sales driven primarily by its annualized Call of Duty franchise.

Sony tells regulators that Xbox Game Pass is "substantially leading" in the multi-game subscription space, indicates that its new higher-priced PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscriptions have yet to take off.

In a recent response letter to UK regulators, Sony makes a case against the Microsoft-Activision merger by indicating that Activision's billion-dollar franchises could represent a tipping point in the subscription market.

Sony says that Xbox Game Pass has a big lead over its new PlayStation Plus offering, revealing that total Xbox Game Pass subscribers are in the 29 million mark. Microsoft had previously said Xbox Game Pass had over 25 million subscribers at the end of June 2022.

Microsoft has made Sony a 10-year licensing deal to keep Activision-Blizzard games on PlayStation in an effort to help convince regulators to approve the massive $68.7 billion merger.

Sources tell Reuters that Microsoft is prepared to make pre-emptive concessions in the hopes of getting the Activision merger approved. While the Microsoft-Activision merger has been approved without limitations in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia, regulators like the UK's Competition for Markets Authority, the United States' FTC, and the European Commission are heavily scrutinizing the multi-billion deal.

One of the biggest contention points is the fate of the $31 billion shooter franchise Call of Duty, as well as other lucrative Activision titles. Microsoft has publicly said that it intends to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation, and has recently backed up its pledge with a 10-year deal guaranteeing Sony access to Call of Duty on its PlayStation platform.

Activision-Blizzard games will not appear on any subscription services if the merger with Microsoft does not go through.

In a recent 111-page response letter to UK regulators, Microsoft reveals some rather interesting details about Activision's thoughts on subscriptions. According to Microsoft, who cites internal data and sworn testimony from executives, Activision has no plans to bring its big mainline games to a subscription service if the merger is not approved.

This is particularly interesting because of a pre-existing deal that Activision made with Sony. Some time ago Activision had signed a big multi-year marketing and licensing deal with Sony that offered exclusive content to PlayStation. Part of that contract stipulated that Activision could not release Call of Duty on Game Pass. According to Microsoft's recent statements to the CMA, Activision had no plans to release Call of Duty (or any of its big games) to Game Pass anyway.

Microsoft has suggested that Sony disrupt disrupt a business model that has delivered nearly 10 years of success in order to boost the value of PlayStation Plus.

Right now both Sony and Microsoft are going head-to-head with the Activision merger. Sony is arguing against the deal and says it will "threaten the gaming ecosystem," where as Microsoft argues the deal is great for consumers and competition. One of the main arguments is that Sony's PlayStation Plus will have a hard time competing should Activision games become offered exclusively to Game Pass and not available on PS Plus.

So what is Sony to do? Microsoft says that, at minimum, Sony could offer day-and-date releases of key first-party and third-party games on PlayStation Plus. In other words, Microsoft is advising Sony to essentially break the so-called "virtuous cycle" that has helped sustain the multi-billion dollar PlayStation empire.

Neither Sony nor Microsoft are willing to allow either company's competing services on their respective platforms.

Sony's latest response to the Microsoft-Activision merger reveals interesting new information. Sony tells UK regulatory body the CMA that Microsoft will not allow PlayStation Plus on Xbox, which presumably means the company tried to offer its subscription service on Microsoft's ecosystem.

Microsoft had likewise previously offered to bring Game Pass to Sony's platform, suggesting that PlayStation gamers could still access any content that would theoretically be Game Pass-exclusive and thereby circumventing one of the CMA's theories of harm arguments against the Microsoft-Activision merger.

Microsoft's recent comments about Grand Theft Auto 6's release date are based on rumors, not concrete information.

Microsoft recently made a 111-page response arguing why it should be allowed to merge with Activision. That document, which about as long as a novella by Stephen King, outlines a ton of information regarding the games industry, key metrics, and new releases. One of the games mentioned in Microsoft's response is a potential release year for Rockstar Games' massively anticipated GTA 6.

Microsoft's recent comments about Grand Theft Auto 6's release date are based on rumors, not concrete information.

If Microsoft is allowed to merge with Activision, then Xbox will become a "one stop shop" for shooter video games, Sony has told regulators.

Sony's latest response to the Microsoft-Activision merger has made some new arguments against the deal. Sony's core argument boldly claims the merger would threaten the games industry during a pivotal point, but more specific arguments include Microsoft acquiring a much larger share in the very lucrative shooter genre.

Sony has told the UK's Competition and Markets Authority that Microsoft would essentially hold too many popular FPS franchises following the Activision merger, including Call of Duty, which dominates the premium console shooter space with over $31 billion in revenues generated to date. Other franchises would include Overwatch, which certifiably became a billion-dollar series in 2017, joining other wholly-owned Xbox megahits like Halo.

Sony's latest response letter to UK regulators argues heavily against the Microsoft-Activision merger and uses very expressive language to describe multi-billion franchises like Call of Duty.

Before we delve any deeper, there's something I'd like to make clear in this article: This new document is not Sony's official response to the merger itself, but a direct response to the CMA's Issues Statement that was published on October 14. Sony's response was published on October 28 and is nearly 1 month old. It does not include recent developments or reflect recent statements made by Phil Spencer, e.g. the 10-year Call of Duty offer.

Sony's messaging has become much more specific and targeted in this brief. While Microsoft's tone with Call of Duty is now much more confident and adamantly against exclusivity, Sony's language makes it clear that the deal should not go through at all. There's some holes in Sony's arguments to be sure, and most of the document is re-asserting the CMA's position on the merger, but the platform-holder is making some stark and bold comments regarding the merger.

CD Projekt RED shows its peers how to do a real next-gen upgrade with The Witcher 3's impressively robust update.

New-gen game upgrades should be a lot more than simple visual upgrades--they should be more like The Witcher 3's upcoming re-release. CD Projekt RED has detailed the massive amount of added value that this upgrade brings to the core Witcher 3 experience, and many of the features actually help evolve and adapt the open-world RPG to a more modern day gaming market.

Apart from the significant visual upgrades on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, which includes raytraced global illumination, optimized frame rates and FSR 2.0 / DLSS support, there's a bunch of great new additions that will improve gameplay.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet has broken new sales records and the duo now has the biggest launch in franchise history.

Despite ongoing controversy regarding in-game performance and often-hilarious glitches, the new Pokemon duo on Switch is performing extremely well. The game has broken all previous records for any Pokemon series release with 10 million copies sold digitally and physically in the first 3 days of availability.

Nintendo confirms that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet also achieved the highest worldwide launch sales out of any video game in the history of all Nintendo video games. For comparison's sake, the previous Switch record-holder, Animal Crossing New Horizons, managed to sell 11 million copies in 11 days' time during the height of the coronavirus. The previous best-launched Pokemon game was Arceus, which had sold over 6.5 million copies in 7 days.

Sony has revealed when it plans to launch its new next-gen PS6, but when will Microsoft's next Xbox launch?

Microsoft has already confirmed it is working on a new next-gen Xbox console, and now we have some basic idea when the system will launch. In a lengthy 111-page response to UK regulators on the proposed Activision merger, Microsoft has outlined some interesting tidbits about the future of the console market.

According to Microsoft, the next console generation is expected to start in 2028. This would give the current Xbox Series X/S and PS5 generation an eight-year lifecycle that aligns with previous generations. Gen 8, which includes the Xbox One and PS4, has marginally wound down throughout 2021. Gen 9 is expected to last from 2020 - 2028, and give way to Gen 10 in 2028 and beyond.

The PlayStation 5 just turned 2 years old, and the next-generation PlayStation 6 could release in just a couple years' time.

The United Kingdom's Competition Markets Authority regulatory body, who is currently investigating the Microsoft-Activision merger, just published two new sets of documents today that reveal some very interesting information. One of the documents outlines Sony's response and statements to the CMA's concerns about the merger. Included in Sony's comments is a snippet about the next-generation PlayStation console.

According to the document, Sony could expect the PlayStation 6 to release as early as 2027. This would give the PS5 a shorter 7-year life cycle when compared to the PlayStation 4. No details on the new PS6 were confirmed or discussed, just a brief timetable on when consumers could expect the new higher-end PlayStation hardware.

The $31 billion Call of Duty franchise may deliver its best year ever as 2022 numbers continue to soar.

Call of Duty is currently at a watershed moment. In the next few months, the franchise will have five monetized products on the market at once: Modern Warfare 2, Warzone 1.0, Warzone 2.0, Warzone Mobile, and Call of Duty Mobile. Modern Warfare 2 isn't just a game, it's the gateway to new experiences like Warzone Mobile and Warzone 2.0, both of which have been built from the ground up in the MW2 game engine.

Activision's master plan, which combines full games with cross-platform live services, is paying off big time. Call of Duty is so big that it commands all of Activision's development teams and to much success; Modern Warfare 2 made $1 billion from game sales alone in 10 days time, breaking previous franchise records. MW2 was also the #1 best-selling digital Call of Duty game in PlayStation history.

A new Alien game is in development and it could be a spiritual successor to the popular Alien Isolation thriller.

The next Alien game will be a big-budget AAA survival horror game, sources have told Insider Gaming. No details about the new project have been announced, however it's possible this project and Alien Isolation 2 are in simultaneous development (although this seems unlikely given the niche appeal of horror, and that both projects would then technically be AAA games).

The Alien series has seen a modern resurgence over the last two decades, first with the ill-fated Aliens Colonial Marines, then with the well-received fright fest Alien Isolation in 2014. We've also seen Aliens Fireteam Elite, which stands far above Colonial Marines as the best Alien shooter ever made, and a brief foray into mobile games. The next Alien project, Aliens: Dark Descent, will round out the catalog with an isometric squad-based tactics game.

Both Microsoft and Sony are relaying sensitive information about closed-doors deals and discussions on the impending Activision merger, and it probably isn't good for either company.

Pressure is mounting on the $68.7 billion Activision merger. Worldwide regulators are closely scrutinizing the deal, which would bestow upon Microsoft eight separate billion-dollar Activision-Blizzard franchises, including the $31 billion mega-hit Call of Duty, the mobile sensation Candy Crush, and the PC MMORPG World of Warcraft. The pressure has had different effects on Microsoft and Sony.

Microsoft, for one, has responded to the pressure with increased confidence and clarity in its messaging around the merger. Through Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer, Microsoft has now delivered four separate clear-cut statements on how it intends to continue releasing Call of Duty on PlayStation.

Microsoft has offered Sony a deal that's almost too good to be true--a deal that could assuage regulators as they closely investigate the enormity of Activision merger.

According to new reports from the New York Times, Microsoft has offered Sony a deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for at least 10 years. This deal, which Sony probably won't accept (or publicly admit that it has accepted) during the ongoing regulatory investigations, would effectively guarantee Call of Duty games on the PlayStation platform until 2032. That's a hell of a deal from a company who had originally wanted to only guarantee 3 years of access to Call of Duty.

Quoting the NYT:

Starbreeze is going all out on Payday 3's development, but Payday 2 continues delivering surprisingly high playercounts.

Starbreeze recently announced some impressive Q3 financials and reiterated its progress on Payday 3. The developer says that Payday 3's development is going quite well and that expansion efforts at Overkill have kicked off to help finalize the game for its incoming 2023 release.

"The development of PAYDAY 3 is proceeding according to plan, and together with our co-publishing partner, Plaion (which has changed its name from Koch Media group), we are working hard to ensure a successful launch in 2023. Many people are waiting for more information about the exact release date and to see content from the game, and we will provide updates closer to the launch," said Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjogren