Gaming - Page 334

While Sony just raised the base MSRP of the PlayStation 5 in all worldwide markets except for the United States, Microsoft has discounted its digital-only Xbox Series S by $50 for the holiday season.

Sony is currently prepping to ship 18 million PlayStation 5 consoles by March 2023 with a focus on profitability and big weight reductions that will lead to lower shipment costs. Microsoft, on the other hand, is actually discounting the price of its cheaper Xbox Series console in an effort to build out its console installed base and to engage more users into its online, digital-focused gaming market.

The Xbox Series S is currently on sale for $249 across multiple retailers including the Microsoft Store. This sale is actually quite meaningful for Microsoft's business; Xbox's Phil Spencer has said the company loses $100-200 on every console, and this indicates Microsoft is willing to take even more of a loss in exchange for the potential of selling more systems during an challenging economical period that happens to coincide with the holiday 2022 season.

Sonic co-creator Yuji Naka has been arrested by Japanese authorities on suspicion of insider trading.

Game developer Yuji Naka, who has worked on nearly 20 Sonic games and more recently Balan Wonderworld, has been apprehended by Tokyo police on allegations of insider trading. Naka was one of three individuals who were arrested for allegedly violating Japan's Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, the other two include Taisuke Sasaki and Fumiaki Suzuki.

According to reports, Naka, Sasaki, and Suzuki were arrested for insider trading in regards to the recent Dragon Quest Tact mobile game. All three individuals allegedly purchased stock in Aiming, the developer behind Dragon Quest Tact, before the mobile game was announced with the belief that Aiming's share value would increase following the game's announcement and subsequent release.

Microsoft reiterates that Call of Duty will not only remain on PlayStation, but continue to ship to the platform as a native gaming experience.

In a recent interview with The Verge's Decoder, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer makes new comments about Microsoft's plans for the $31 billion Call of Duty franchise as worldwide regulators investigate the proposed Microsoft-Activision merger.

Spencer reiterates major points that Microsoft intends to treat Call of Duty like Minecraft and that there's no tricks--just the same mainline, premium Call of Duty that gamers are enjoying now.

Starbreeze is currently working on a new IP outside of Payday, but it could be a licensed series from another publisher.

After an going flirt with disaster, Payday developer Starbreeze is back making new games again. The studio signed a big multi-year deal with Plaion (former Koch Media) to publish Payday 3. That's not the only project the company is working on, though; Starbreeze is also busy crafting its next game that won't be set within the Payday universe.

In a recent Q3 earnings presentation, Starbreeze confirms it is actively developing a new game in a fresh IP. Its next project is due out in or around 2025 and it could be set in either a licensed IP or one that the studio creates themselves.

I've you've been enjoying Overwatch 2 but missing Mei, it's time... Blizzard has announced a new Overwatch 2 update that includes a bunch of changes, including the re-introduction of Mei.

The team has tweaked other heroes in the new Overwatch 2 update -- nerfing Genji and Zarya -- with Blizzard also announcing changes to Overwatch 2's battle pass, amongst other things. Starting with Zarya, her barriers protect herself from harm -- and allies -- while taking in all the damage that amplifies her beam weapon. Blizzard has tweaked the duration of Zarya's abilities, decreasing them from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds, so you'll have to be careful moving in as hard as you would as Zarya.

Genji has been nerfed, with Blizzard reducing the number of shurikens you have, as well as making them less powerful. Not many changes there, but Genji fans might not (or might) be happy with that. In a new developer blog, the new Executive Producer for Overwatch 2, Jared Neuss, explains that they've changed the rewards up for Season 2 so that each skin you can earn by playing, in addition to the other cosmetic rewards you'd normally get in Overwatch 2.

MAINGEAR has announced a totally new direction for the company, announcing its new customizable MG-1 desktop gaming PC, 3D System Configuration Experience... and oh, game streamer Michael "shroud" Grzesiek is now a co-owner and working with the team on refreshing its new MG-1 and especially, the new MG-1 shroud Edition gaming desktop PCs.

At the same time, MAINGEAR has ushered in a major brand refresh across its entire website and product, and a new era for the company can begin, with shroud at the center of it.

The new MAINGEAR MG-1 has been crafted from the ground up for the best performance, unlimited customization, and understated simplicity. Shroud steps in as a co-owner of MAINGEAR, using his experience in the gaming industry and streaming to ensure that the company fine-tuned its MG-1 desktop gaming PC for the world's best games. Frames win, baby!

Amazon has fired multiple engineers and software developers that are responsible for its Luna game streaming platform.

Amazon Luna may be the next game streaming service on the chopping block. The billion-dollar shipping titan is currently paring back and trimming unsucessful portions of its business in an attempt to maximize profitability, leading to mass layoffs. Reports indicate that Amazon will fire 10,000 people across a number of divisions, including its devices department, which has reportedly lost over $5 billion in a single year. Amazon is following Meta's lead in forcibly shrinking employee headcounts, as well as Twitter, who recently let go of more than half of its staff following Elon Musk taking control of the platform.

Luna, the video game streaming service that Amazon launched in 2020, has also been affected by layoffs. According to the #amazonlayoffs hashtag on LinkedIn, Amazon has let go of multiple software developers and engineers that were part of the Luna service team. In fact, it appears most of the Luna team itself has been fired:

Sony has just published a very interesting patent that would use blockchain ledgers to keep track of in-game items such as cosmetics and user-generated content, which includes screenshots, video, and even user-created items. This system could theoretically be tied to a token economy where users buy and sell digital content.

Note: This existence of this patent does not mean the features described herein will be available in any finalized product or service.

Sony's latest patent, US20220358450 - TRACKING UNIQUE IN-GAME DIGITAL ASSETS USING TOKENS ON A DISTRIBUTED LEDGER, has some far-reaching implications for the future of the PlayStation brand. The core idea is pretty simple: Sony is patenting a way to use blockchain ledgers to keep track of digital content to authenticate and appraise value so that the digital assets can be sold in a marketplace. Assets include cosmetics, in-game items, customized weapons and armor, game save files and loadouts, and even social content created by PlayStation users like screenshots and video. We have to stress that a lot of this is theoretical and there's a good chance that most of the features described in the patent will not be used.

Saints Row developer Volition has been transferred from Deep Silver (aka Plaion) and is now part of Gearbox Entertainment.

Today the Embracer Group made history. For the first time, the decentralized gaming giant moved a studio from one operating group to another. For over a decade Volition has been part of the Deep Silver label. following multiple disappointments, including the ill-fated Agents of Mayhem and the more successful Saints Row reboot, Volition has now been transferred to Gearbox Entertainment.

While it has yet to be confirmed, it is likely that Volition will remain its own core studio and could be the sixth operating unit under the Gearbox Entertainment banner, which includes Gearbox Software (games), Gearbox Publishing (indie games), Gearbox Studios (transmedia) and Gearbox Properties (strategies).

It's been a long, long wait for Dead Island 2...but we'll have to wait a little longer.

Dead Island 2 has received its (hopefully) final delay. The absurd grindhouse bloodfest will not release in February 2023, and will instead launch on April 28, 2023 on last-gen and current-gen consoles and PC. The developers say that this 12-week delay will give them critical extra time to finalize the game into something they can be proud of.

"The release date has been moved for the long-awaited action and horror game, Dead Island 2, developed by internal studio Deep Silver Dambuster (PLAION). The release originally planned for February has been moved to April 28 by internal publisher Deep Silver (PLAION)," Embracer wrote in its recent report.

Sony won't come out and admit that it's working on its next-gen PlayStation 6 console, let alone the probably decades-away PlayStation 7 console, but that hasn't stopped Xbox boss Phil Spencer from pumping out some free marketing for the PS7.

In some new comments during an interview on the Decoder podcast, Spencer talked about the Call of Duty franchise -- now that Microsoft is acquiring Activision-Blizzard in a whopping $69 billion deal -- with Spencer saying that Microsoft will be treating Call of Duty like it does Minecraft: offering Sony to extend their 3-year agreement.

But... PlayStation boss Jim Ryan isn't happy, calling the deal "inadequate on many levels".

A recent interview with Phil Spencer indicates that Candy Crush makes more money than Activision, but more contextual data reveals that this isn't necessarily the case.

Decoder recently published a lengthy interview with Xbox gaming exec Phil Spencer that touches upon many subjects including Call of Duty exclusivity and Microsoft's mobile aspirations. King is a big reason why Microsoft wants to buy Activision for $68.7 billion, and looking at the revenues, we can see why. However it's important to note that King does not make more money than Activision on an annual basis--in fact, it never has since Activision-Blizzard purchased the mobile giant in 2016.

Data published by Activision Blizzard indicates that King makes more revenues on a quarterly basis during the Q1-Q3 period, but Activision conquers segment earnings with significant revenue spikes in the Q4 holiday period.

Elden Ring has sold 17.5 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling individual Japanese games on the market.

In a recent Q&A with investors, Bandai Namco management has confirmed that Elden Ring has sold 17.5 million copies as of September 30, 2022.

This figure carries some pretty heavy weight; not only is Elden Ring one of the best-selling games of 2022, but it managed to achieve these kinds of sales in less than a year, beating out other Japanese RPG hits such as Final Fantasy XV (10 million copies in 6 years) and the more recent Final Fantasy VII Remake (5 million copies since 2020). Elden Ring has also sold more copies than the entire Deus Ex franchise (12 million).

After less than a year, Fortnite Chapter 3 is coming to an end next month.

Today Epic Games announced a new event that will break Chapter 3 and make way for Chapter 4. The in-game event is called Fracture and is believed to be connected to the crack in the sky seen above Loot Lake that had appeared months ago. It's assumed the Fracture event will see the glass rift cracking more and more until Chapter 4 is revealed.

Fracture will go live on December 3 and should bring a new map with it. Gamers are surprised that Chapter 3 may only contain 4 seasons, as compared to the 8 seasons offered in Chapter 2.

UPDATE: Readers have correctly pointed out that Ricardo Cardoso had previously spent 17 years with the European Commission's Competition department, which is the department that handles mergers and acquisitions. Cardoso had previously served as Deputy Head of the COMP.B.1 Antitrust: Energy and Environment division

Original article continues:

The European Commission has responded to reports of perceived bias in favor of Sony regarding the Microsoft-Activision merger.

The controversial Grand Theft Auto trilogy remaster is currently selling better than GTA V, data from publisher Take-Two Interactive indicates.

According to the latest figures from Take-Two's Q2 report, Rockstar Games may have seen a sales surge in its new GTA remaster collection. A particular slide from the investor's presentation shows some interesting numbers. Total GTA franchise sales reached 385 million units, whereas GTA V sales have stalled and failed to break 170 million copies sold. Based on sales trends, this could indicate that the GTA remaster trilogy picked up the slack.

Our findings indicate that the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition games may have sold as many as 4 million copies from June - September. If accurate, this would bring the trilogy remaster sales above 14 million.

Rockstar's beloved Red Dead renegade cowboy franchise has sold over 70 million copies worldwide, Take-Two Interactive reveals in its Q2'23 earnings brief.

The Red Dead Redemption series is Rockstar's second most-popular video game franchise with over 70 million units sold across two games and two console generations. The latest numbers from publisher Take-Two Interactive confirm Red Dead's sales split as 24 million for Red Dead Redemption, and a whopping 46 million for Red Dead Redemption 2.

The franchise managed to sell 2 million copies from June 30 to September 30, 2022, and surprisingly enough, the numbers indicate that both Red Dead Redemption on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One managed to sell 1 million copies each. That's quite surprising given the age of the original game--RDR1 was launched in 2010, more than 12 years ago.

Kevin Conroy, the voice actor known for portraying Batman in dozens of shows, films, and games, has passed away at the age of 66.

Kevin Conroy has passed away, leaving behind one of the most immortal legacies of any voice actor on the planet. Over the span of multiple decades, Conroy delighted fans as the definitive voice of the Caped Crusader. Some would argue that he was Batman and no one else could come close.

Across his career, Conroy lent his voice to an absolutely incredible volume of works. Although he's best known for Batman, the truth is that Conroy was very prolific in theater in the 70s and 80s and starred in multiple TV shows, including the 1980s soap series Another World, as well as the war-themed Tour of Duty. Conroy was also a talented singer.

Nintendo has made nearly $63 billion from its Nintendo Switch platform since March 2017, company filings reveal.

Every quarter, Nintendo delivers updates on its total net sales revenues on a platform level. Out of curiosity, I wanted to know how much the Nintendo Switch has made in its lifetime so far. The answer is...a lot.

According to our findings, which were converted from quarterly yen values into USD using foreign exchange rates published in Nintendo's earnings briefs, the Nintendo Switch platform has generated $62.26 billion since launch to present. This includes hardware, digital and physical software, subscriptions, and add-on content sold through the eShop platform.

Nintendo delivers solid Q2 performance with strong software sales offsetting drops in hardware sales and revenues.

Nintendo recently reported its Q2 Fiscal Year 2023 results and the numbers are quite impressive, especially as the yen depreciates against the dollar. Using data published by Nintendo, we have converted earnings into USD based on the exchange rates included in the company's quarterly earnings reports.

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