Gaming - Page 345

Twitch plans to enact a blanket 50/50 split for all streamers regardless of size.

Twitch today announced a controversial change in how it will share revenues with streamers. The company currently offers two types of contracts to streamers: a "premium" contract offering a 70-30 split (70% to creators, 30% to Twitch) and the standard contract with a 50-50 split. In June 2023, Twitch will change all premium contracts to a 50-50 split. The change will not affect current contracts, the company has said.

The 70-30 split will still be honored for all premium streamers up until their first $100,000 in earnings. After that, the revenue share reverts to 50-50. Under these terms, premium streamers will keep $70,000 for every $100,000 earned, and then $50,000 for the same ratio thereafter.

Logitech's new G Cloud handheld may be a hard sell to consumers who already have game-ready mobile phones.

Today Logitech revealed its new G Cloud handheld that's aimed at merging cloud and mobile gaming together. It's a dedicated, ultra-light portable that runs Android games and connects to cloud services like Xbox Cloud Gaming, NVIDIA's GeForce Now, and Steam Cloud. With the Logitech G Cloud, gamers can play AAA games at 1080p 60FPS instantaneously through the cloud (if your Wi-Fi connection is strong enouhg) without buying or downloading the games.

However novel, the device seems redundant. These cloud services are already available on the millions of mobile devices that consumers already own. Overall the G Cloud is essentially a 7-inch tablet with a Snapdragon 720G SoC with controllers fused on the sides; consumers can replicate this with the myriad of slot-on hardware like the Razer Kishi, for example, while retaining full functionality of their mobile device (including cellular internet).

The new Logitech G Cloud is an interesting Android-powered handheld aimed at helping usher in a new world of cloud-first devices.

The Logitech G Cloud is portable handheld with controllers fastened to the side, not unlike a Nintendo Switch. But unlike the Switch or the Steam Deck, this isn't made to play big AAA games locally.

The G Cloud is essentially a quick-start device for consumers who want to try playing games on the cloud. The G Cloud is a smartphone/tablet that packs in the most pertinent game streaming apps like Xbox Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA GeForce Now into a portable screen-and-controller handheld. Pre-orders are up for $299, but the base MSRP retail cost will be $349, which is more than a base Nintendo Switch. The device will ship to North America first on October 17.

2K Games support today announced that a hacker has gained accessed to its helpdesk platform and is sending out malware to consumers.

Following the widespread Grand Theft Auto 6 leak, another Take-Two Interactive studio has been hit by a cyberattack. This time it's 2K Games, the studio behind one of the most lucrative video game franchises on the planet with the annualized NBA 2K series.

2K Games support has issued a formal statement warning consumers and users not to open any emails or click on any links that they receive from 2K support addresses. These messages and links contain malware that will infiltrate users' computers.

Uber and Take-Two Interactive are currently working alongside the Federal Bureau of Investigation to track down a hacker responsible for multiple data breaches.

Just a few days ago a hacker gained access to Rockstar Games' private database and stole 3GB worth of restricted Grand Theft Auto 6 footage and information. GTA 6 leaks spread like wildfire, and the hacker known as "teapotuberhacker," also took credit for the massive Uber security infiltration that happened on September 16.

Uber has since issued an official update saying that they have been a victim of Lapsus$, a hacker collective known for breaking into many corporate company databases including those from Microsoft, Cisco, Samsung, and NVIDIA. It's believe that Lapsus$ is behind the Rockstar Games hack as well.

Star Citizen has now broken $500 million in crowdsourced funding, with over $77 million generated in 2022 so far.

Star Citizen continues its galaxy-spanning budget as one of the most expensive video games in the history of the industry. The long-running space sim has broken half a billion in total funding through pledges and in-game purchases over the past 10 years, making it one of the largest independent game investments on the market.

At the time of writing, Star Citizen has raised $500.067 million and there are over 4 million players. Star Citizen managed to raise over $77.121 million throughout 2022 so far.

Electronic Arts and Marvel have announced a business collaboration to work on several new game projects.

The leaks were right: EA is working on a new Iron Man game and a handful of other titles too. "This is an exciting new collaboration between Marvel and Electronic Arts, with Iron Man being the first of several new games," EA's Motive studio said during today's Iron Man announcement.

This lends credence to earlier reports that EA is also working on a new Black Panther game, but nothing has been announced or confirmed on other projects.

It's official: EA is making a Star Wars game, and its vehicle experts at Motive Studios are developing the project.

EA Motive today announced they are working on a new Iron Man game for Marvel built on an "exciting original narrative" that explores the adventures of billionaire-turned-hero Tony Stark.

The project is a singleplayer-only experience and is currently in very early pre-production; Motive is hiring multiple developers to work on the Iron Man game.

Sony will release a new PlayStation 5 model with a detachable disc drive in 2024, sources have told leaker Tom Henderson.

Sony's next PlayStation 5 won't be an upgraded pro model or the oft-rumored slim revision. The new PS5 will have the exact same specs as the original 2020, 2021, and recently released 2022 models but will instead feature a detachable disc drive that connects to the back of the system via an extra USB-C port.

The idea is that gamers will be able to transform their PlayStation consoles via modular form factors--remove the disc drive and the PS5 becomes digital-only, and add it to enable the system to read and play game discs and media. At the same time, there were reports the PS5 digital edition had custom firmware that blocked disc drives.

Microsoft has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Halo Infinite's development, new reports from Thurrott's Brad Sams indicate.

Halo Infinite was meant to be the penultimate Halo game. Designed to fulfill Microsoft's Halo-as-a-service ambitions and serve as a direct vehicle for recurring microtransaction revenues, Infinite was supposed to be the last Halo game and span a 10-year period. The platform hasn't coalesced, though, and the game was split between a F2P multiplayer game and a premium campaign. This epic vision cost quite a bit, though; Microsoft is believed to have shelled out a big budget for years of Halo Infinite's turbulent development.

In a recent YouTube video, Brad Sams, VP and general manager at Stardock who also has close ties with Microsoft sources, says that Halo Infinite's budget could have commanded hundreds of millions.

Take-Two Interactive has released a new Form 8-K SEC filing that informs investors on the recent Rockstar Games server infiltration and what steps it has taken to remedy the situation.

Over the weekend, Rockstar Games' internal servers were hacked and someone made off with 3GB of stolen Grand Theft Auto 6 footage, information, and data. The GTA 6 leaks went viral and spread like wildfire, and were confirmed authentic shortly after. Rockstar Games has delivered an official statement on the matter, and parent company Take-Two has responded by issuing multiple takedown requests and is currently investigating the situation.

Take-Two has told investors that it has "taken steps to isolate and contain" the leaks and that support and development for current and future Rockstar titles, including GTA Online, GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2, Red Dead Redemption Online, and the new Grand Theft Auto game, remain unaffected by the leaks.

Rockstar Games has officially responded to the recent GTA VI leaks and delivers updates on the current status of the game.

GTA 6's leaks were recently confirmed by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, and now Rockstar Games has also verified the situation.

In a recent statement, Rockstar acknowledges that its servers were infiltrated and says that developers are "extremely disappointed" that so much information, footage, and screenshots have been released to the public. Rockstar says the leaks will not affect development of its ongoing projects or live services (interesting that this is plural, indicating R* is working on more than one game and likely refers to GTA 6 and the new game's online component).

Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan has pledged to do what is best for PlayStation gamers, but the company's current consumer-facing trends are more favorable for the company as a whole.

Sony management has publicly opposed Microsoft's buyout of Activision-Blizzard. PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has outright said that "giving Microsoft control of Activision games like Call of Duty" would have "major negative implications for gamers." This has sparked interesting discussions from gamers, namely PlayStation fans who are being aversely affected by Sony's recent business decisions.

New reports indicate the recent GTA 6 leaks could lead to a major delay for the game.

Last night Rockstar Games' internal servers were infiltrated and a hacker stole multiple gigabytes worth of confidential data, including debug footage, pictures, and source code for a pre-alpha build of GTA 6. The leaks started circulating in the early morning hours and spread like wildfire. Take-Two Interactive is currently issuing takedown notices for the leaks, but for Rockstar Games it appears the damage has been done.

Developers are reportedly disheartened about the attack, which broke into private and closely-guarded servers, as well as the overall sentiment about the footage. The hacker is currently trying to blackmail Rockstar Games and is threatening to release source code for GTA V, GTA VI, and even an early GTA VI test build unless the studio can "negotiate a deal."

The recent Grand Theft Auto 6 leaks are absolutely real...and Rockstar Games has been demoralized by the massive data infiltration.

A hacker has infiltrated Rockstar Games' internal servers and stole 3GB worth of early GTA 6 footage, photos, and source code for the game. The hacker, who has also claimed credit for the damaging Uber hack, published the confidential data publicly and the leaks have been widely circulated in the last 11 hours, delivering a crushing blow to the developers at Rockstar Games. At the time of writing there were reports that source code for GTA VI has been released alongside 90 videos of pre-alpha Grand Theft Auto VI footage.

Reporters with sources close to Rockstar Games have confirmed the leaks are authentic. "Not that there was much doubt, but I've confirmed with Rockstar sources that this weekend's massive Grand Theft Auto VI leak is indeed real," Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reports.

Grand Theft Auto 6 will be one of the biggest games ever made when it releases, but I'm sure this morning it going to be a doozy for anyone working at Rockstar Games.

A bunch of new screenshots and videos from a purported copy of Grand Theft Auto 6 are making the rounds, with some new animations, new NPC interactions, a robbery scene inside of a restaurant, a police shootout, and our first look at the purported new female protagonist.

The leaked footage of GTA 6 isn't going to be the best -- but what did you expect, 4K 60FPS gameplay? -- with the game reportedly running on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card at the low 720p resolution. It's either very old footage from a few years ago, or it's Rockstar making sure the game is working on a wide range of hardware (which they have to do, given how big the GTA franchise is).

Xbox, not PlayStation or Nintendo, is showcasing games at Tokyo Game Show 2022 and have stopped by Japanese game dev offices like Kojima Productions.

Xbox gaming president Phil Spencer is currently in Japan and has met up with a lot of overseas developers making new games for Xbox, including Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima.

Back at E3 2022, Hideo Kojima confirmed he was creating an innovative new experience for Xbox. Months prior to Kojima's confirmation, reports said that the developer was making a new cloud game for Microsoft's growing online infrastructure. It looks like Kojima has shown Phil Spencer the project...and possibly even other horror directors like Jordan Peele.

Sony's latest gaming smartphone has pretty much ensured the PlayStation Vita will stay dead.

10 years ago, Sony made both smartphones and gaming handhelds; the Xperia and the Vita line co-existed and served different markets. Nowadays the Vita has been rendered largely obsolete by the power and utility of today's smartphones. After 7 years on the market, Sony has decided that dedicated handheld gaming peripherals just aren't worth it.

PlayStation was noticeably absent from Tokyo Game Show 2022, but Sony's Xperia smartphone segment debuted an interesting device. The latest Xperia 1 IV Gaming Edition smartphone adds fresh new soil to the Vita's grave. The Xperia 1 IV Gaming Edition packs on an extra 4GB of RAM onto the base Xperia 1 IV handset to deliver serious hardware specs and performance targets; outfitted with a massive 16GB of DDR5-3200MHz RAM, Qualcomm's powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, and a 120Hz screen with 240Hz touch scanning, the new Xperia gaming edition was built specifically for pro players (namely F2P mobile games).

Halo Infinite has a big untapped PVE market that could facilitate an interesting expansion for the series.

343 Industries is going all-in on multiplayer. The studio cancelled Halo Infinite's split-screen co-op and are about to ship online co-op play. 343i is currently in the midst of a massive overhaul and executive shake-up; the devs have outlined a new five-part strategy that will frame its future work and came under new leadership. 343i founder Bonnie Ross has left, and Pierre Hintze, who is largely known for "saving" Halo MCC, is now at the helm.

So what's next? Probably not much until multiplayer is fixed; MP is the only way to make money from Infinite so that takes precedence. But what if 343i went another way and tried to make money from campaign, too? What if Halo-as-a-service included social PVE content as well?

Kojima's mysterious new teaser has been decoded, but we now have more questions instead of answers.

A bit ago Hideo Kojima released a teaser image for his next project--a shadowy snapshot of a woman with "Who am I?" written in boldface. Now we know who she is: Twitter sleuth Jose Mellinas has identified the woman as Elle Fanning, the famous actress in movies like Maleficent and Super 8.

She also starred in a movie called The Neon Demon,a film that was directed by Death Stranding star Nicolas Winding Refn. Interesting connections. Elle Fanning and Hideo Kojima also follow one another on Instagram.