Gaming - Page 348

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.

Another interesting tidbit is that the original Gran Turismo developers apparently still work at Polyphony Digital and the studio has grown to over 200 developers.

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.

High On Life, the new crude sci-fi shooter from Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland, is a smash cult hit on Xbox Game Pass.

It's official: High On Life is a big success on Xbox. The game has broken multiple records on Xbox Game Pass, becoming the best third-party game launch of all time on the service. It's also the biggest game launch in 2022 in terms of number of hours played. High On Life has become the most popular single player-only game release in the history of Xbox Game Pass.

Microsoft has confirmed that High On Life has seen millions of players worldwide, and at one point it was more popular than Minecraft.

Lara Croft's iconic adventures have led to nearly 100 million game sales worldwide, developer Crystal Dynamics has confirmed.

Over the past 26 years, the Tomb Raider franchise has sold a combined 95 million copies across multiple titles. The figure comes from a new press release issued by Crystal Dynamics, who recently announced that its new Unreal Engine 5-powered Tomb Raider game would be published by Amazon's gaming division.

"The Tomb Raider franchise includes more than 20 video games, is loved by more than 170 million people around the world, and has sold more than 95 million copies since the first entry was released in 1996," reads the press release.

In an interesting twist, the next Tomb Raider game will be published by Amazon Games.

Earlier this year, the Embracer Group purchased Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and a bunch of game franchises like Tomb Raider and Deus Ex from Square Enix for $300 million. The new owners confirmed that Crystal Dynamics would retain full creative leadership over the Tomb Raider franchise while also greenlighting a new Lara Croft adventure game.

Since then we haven't had very many updates about the new Tomb Raider project. We know that it's being made in Unreal Engine 5, and Embracer Group CEO teased that Crystal Dynamics was doing "very interesting" things with Tomb Raider.

Sony's new $200 DualSense Edge controller caters to the high-performance enthusiast crowd, but the upgrades come at a cost other than money.

The DualSense Edge is Sony's answer to the Xbox Elite controllers, featuring swappable joysticks, back paddles, and significantly optimized precision and sensitivity profiles. Sony promises that the Edge will give you, well, an edge in all kinds of games, especially shooters where fast-twitch reflexes are needed.

There's just two potential problems with the DualSense Edge. The first is battery life. Sony has officially confirmed the DualSense Edge has a "moderately shorter" battery life than the $70 stock DualSense controller. We don't know the battery size of the Edge, but the regular DualSense uses a 1,560 mAh battery, which can be swapped out in favor of a battery with a higher capacity (I did this with my DualShock 4 and it worked very well).

Blizzard outlines more details on what to expect from the Diablo franchise's first ever paid battle pass.

Diablo IV will have a paid battle pass complemented by a rotating seasonal structure of content. Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo IV will not go live with a season--instead, season 1 will release weeks after the game launches in June 2023. So that early access pre-order bonuses will not give players an extra lead over others.

"The battle pass will last for the entire duration of a season. That season is 3 months, so you'll have plenty of time to work your way through the battle pass. Active players will have no problem with that. You're not going to run out of time," game director Joe Shely said.

Blizzard has officially confirmed that classic old-school Diablo items will be returning in Diablo IV.

Diablo is a franchise with deep-rooted traditions, and one of these decades'-long rituals is finding new ways to reinvent classic items. Blizzard says that Diablo IV will see the triumphant return of some of the most iconic items that appeared in Diablo I and Diablo II.

"There are a ton of classic Diablo items that are returning. Shako is coming back, Windforce is coming back, Grandfather...Magefist are coming back. You will see some returning favorites," Diablo IV associate game director Joseph Piepiora said during a developer live stream.

Diablo IV's new Codex of Power mechanic will bring massive replayability and customization to the game.

Diablo IV has a new game-changing feature called the Codex of Power, which will allow gamers to specifically target buffs and passive bonuses to augment their builds. Blizzard has found a way to effectively turn in-game environments into something that is better than a legendary item; the dungeons themselves are like the prefixes and suffixes from Diablo II. Imagine being able to find some of the best buffs and stats from one item and affix them to other items.

Here's how it works: Every dungeon in Diablo IV has specific loot called an "aspect". This aspect is kind of like a gem from D3 that augments skills and abilities. The aspects are equivalent to the special buffs and powers on legendary items.

Sony could release a new PlayStation 5 model in 2023, but it may not be a PS5 Pro with improved performance and power.

In a recent interview with Japanese gaming site Famitsu, Sony Interactive Entertainment Vice President Hideaki Nishino may have teased a new PS5 model that could be announced and/or released in 2023.

Famitsu mentioned that the PS5 was entering its third year, and that the PS4 Pro released in the PS4's third year--would a new revamped PS5 come in 2023 to continue this mid-cycle trend? Nishino responded by Sony's current plans and thoughts about next year:

Beloved creative director Chris Metzen is returning to Blizzard to help lead the studio during a big transitional period.

Blizzard is changing. On a cultural level, the studio has struggled with sexual harassment allegations, leading to multiple lawsuits and shocking testimony of worker treatment and abuse. Blizzard has also struggled with production: Before Diablo 2 Resurrected's launch in 2021, Blizzard had not released a new product for many years. Now Blizzard management is trying to solve both issues and has recruited studio vets to help make it happen.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, former Blizzard creative Chris Metzen is returning to the studio to help kickstart these new initiatives. Management hopes that Metzen's return will embolden morale and lead to better culture while offering inspiration to workers who are developing new games and content. Metzen could help get Blizzard back on track with culture and production.

Square Enix is bundling all six classic Final Fantasy games from the NES and SNES eras in one collectible package.

It's official: The Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Collection is coming to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in a physical and collectible format. The all-in-one bundle includes Final Fantasy I - VI but the asking price is a bit steep at $75, which is the same price as the full collection on Steam. The physical editions are exclusive to the Square Enix Store so you'll want to pre-order ASAP to get a copy.

The games are due to ship in May 2023, which is really close to the planned June release date for Final Fantasy 16.

Microsoft could introduce a lower-cost Xbox Game Pass subscription tier that requires users to watch advertisements before they play.

An Xbox user survey may hint at a new cheaper Xbox Game Pass subscription plan in exchange for ads, not unlike the cheaper ad-supported plans that Netflix, Disney, and Paramount+ currently offer. The survey, which is in Spanish and was uploaded to ResetEra, gives an interesting look at what Microsoft could be planning.

According to the questionnaire, Microsoft could offer a tremendously low-cost Game Pass tier for just 3 Euros a month with lots of restrictions. Right now Xbox Game Pass is the most value-oriented video games subscription on the market, and Microsoft could improve subscriber counts by cutting up this value and offering separately-priced pieces.

Microsoft executive Brad Smith makes the case that Xbox needs more first-party content in order to stay competitive, but that isn't exactly true--Microsoft just needs more games.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg Technology, Microsoft President Brad Smith laid out more reasons why the company should be able to buy Activision for $68.7 billion. Smith argues that Xbox needs more first-party IPs so that they can adequately compete against Sony's PlayStation brand,

"We're the small entrant. They have 286 exclusive titles. We have 59. We need some more first-party games in order to be a healthier and stronger competitor, and we need to do it in course in a way that doesn't impede competition along the way," Smith said.

Valve confirms it is concepting new SteamOS hardware for all kinds of spaces, including couch gaming in the living room.

Valve has had a push and pull relationship with hardware. Its Steam Machines initiative, which created low-cost (and low-powered) PC "consoles" from multiple OEMs largely failed to gain traction. The VR and handheld gaming fronts are very different stories. The Steam Deck is incredibly popular, and Valve's Index VR is largely seen as the best way to experience dedicated, PC-powered virtual reality.

The PC game store operator has no plans of stopping its hardware ambitions any time soon. Valve is currently focusing heavily on its Steam Deck platform, including new model revisions, as well as VR...but it still isn't giving up on some sort of console-like system for the living room.

Spider-Man 2, one of the most anticipated new PS5 games, just got a targeted release window.

Sony and Insomniac Games today announced Spider-Man 2 is planned for a Fall 2023 launch exclusively on PS5. The sequel features both Miles Morales and Peter Parker, hinting that gamers will be able to switch between the heroes, and Venom also shows up. Maybe Miles and Peter team up against Venom, or all three join to fight some bigger threat like Carnage?

"What a year it's been for PlayStation Studios; here at Insomniac Games we've been in absolute awe of the work of our peers.

Blizzard and Vicarious Visions are celebrating the holiday season in hell with some nifty Diablo II Resurrected events.

Thanks to Blizzard's efforts, Hell freezes this Christmas with a special D2 event. The limited-time holiday event is called 22 Nights of Terror, and will feature a new modifier or in-game changes every day for the next 20 days. Blizzard officially promises "powerful loot, a dash of terror, and a new surprise"...however the first two days have been predictable enough.

Day 1 saw the Cow Level (aka an non-existent level) being corrupted as a Terror Zone for the entire day. Areas that are corrupted deliver more XP and have a chance of dropping the new Sunder Charms. Day 2's buff is called Sanity Clause, and sees Terror Zones changing every 15 minutes.