Gaming - Page 351

Bungie is breaking barriers with Destiny 2 and hints at the future of the live game beyond the Light vs Dark saga.

Destiny 2's new Lightfall expansion is so different than what I was expecting. Rather than being a somber punctuation to a years'-long saga full of interstellar witchcraft, death and loss, and an intricately-weaved plotline, it's a bombastic and colorful explosion of mayhem. It looks, well, very fun...and it could hint at what's to come from Bungie.

One of the most interesting things about Lightfall is how Bungie coalesced a new civilization, destination, and city out of nothing. Destiny 2's Lightfall expansion will introduce Neoluma, a new capital city on Neptune that features a brand set of NPCs called Cloudstriders. Bungie says Neoluma was a "hidden city" that no one knew about before now, and that the Cloudstriders are an alternate form of humanity.

Microsoft wants to buy Activision for one reason above all else: Mobile gaming.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg TV's Emily Chang, Xbox's Phil Spencer outlined the rationale behind Microsoft's huge $68.7 billion buyout offer for Activision-Blizzard. The simple answer is mobile games first, and PC gaming second.

"When we were thinking about on the idea on what we are capable of today and where do we need to go...the biggest gaming platform on the planet is mobile phones. 1.5 billion people play on mobile phones and regretfully Microsoft is not a place where we have a native platform as far as gaming. Coming from console and PC we don't have a lot of creative capability that has built hit mobile games," Spencer.

Sony is increasing the PlayStation 5's price tag in key regions like Canada, Europe, China, Mexico, and Japan--basically everywhere except the United States.

Today Sony made one of its most unpopular decisions in gaming since the PS3 era. The gaming giant is raising the price of the PlayStation 5 to reflect market inflation across the globe. Sony is one of the many Japanese games companies that saw their earnings slide as consumers pared back game spending. PlayStation's operating income dropped by nearly 50% in converted yen-to-USD rates in the Q1 period.

To make up for this drop, and to maximize hardware earnings, Sony is raising the price of the base and digital PS5 systems. The price hike, which is effective immediately except for Japan, comes months before Sony prepares the largest shipment of PlayStation 5 consoles in the history of the entire brand. Sony wants to ship 18 million PS5s during this fiscal year and plans to make Holiday 2022 the big season for PS5 availability.

While Microsoft has said in the past that it will continue offering Call of Duty products on competing platforms like PlayStation, Xbox boss Phil Spencer doesn't know if these billion-dollar games will stay on those platforms in perpetuity.

"So how far does this go? Does this mean Activision games, that Call of Duty that you'll be able to play on any platform in perpetuity?" Bloomberg's Emily Chang asked Spencer in a recent interview.

Spencer replied:

Xbox gaming boss Phil Spencer comments about the current chances of Microsoft's huge $68.7 billion buyout of Activision-Blizzard being approved by worldwide regulators.

Microsoft wants to buy Activision-Blizzard for nearly $70 billion and become the world's largest video games company on the planet. This union of billion-dollar services with billion-dollar game franchises (Call of Duty, Overwatch) is a big, big deal that could transform the industry and help usher in a new wave of cross-platform, service-based gaming.

Naturally this mega-deal has drawn scrutiny of worldwide regulators. Due to the sheer size of the deal, global governments are looking closely at both companies (as well as competitors like Sony) to determine possible monopolistic or anti-competitive practices. The FTC in America, CADE in Brazil, and other bodies are gathering information on Microsoft and Activision.

Hot on the heels of horror hits like Friday the 13th The Game and Evil Dead, a Killer Klowns From Outer Space game is actually happening.

Pop culture is shifting to the past and the 80s are coming back with style. We've seen many game adaptations of classic horror franchises (Nightmare on Elm Street game when?) pop up over the years, and now one of the more obscure cult hits is getting its turn: Killer Klowns From Outer Space.

Developed by Teravision. the Killer Klowns From Outer Space game will be a 10-player multiplayer game with 7 vs 3 action, with 7 Klowns against 3 Humans. The devs explain there are five classes per side, with each class having their own proficiencies, attributes, and active abilities. Oh, and one of the things about the game is the Klowns literally have a LOL (Laugh Out Loud) ability that "terrorizes" their foes.

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered is a treasure for PC gamers, but what about pushing it to its limits? That's exactly what we did, running the game at the enthusiast-level 8K resolution: 7680 x 4320, or 4x the pixels of 4K and 16x the pixels of 1080p.

Running a game as good-looking as Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered at 8K requires considerable grunt, so we ran the very best GPU silicon on the planet from both sides of the camp: including the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT and Radeon RX 6900 XT as well as NVIDIA's brutally fast GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, GeForce RTX 3090, and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards.

AMD and NVIDIA's fastest GPUs can run the game at 8K with the help of FSR 2.0 and DLSS 2.4 enabled, but NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti is the only graphics card capable of running Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered with ray tracing enabled (which looks awesome, by the way) with a commanding 55FPS+ average at 8K with DLSS 2.4 enabled and set to "Ultra Performance".

The Game Awards will return in early December 2022, complete with an IMAX showing and a brand new award category.

Geoff Keighley's annual awards show is coming back for its 9th consecutive run (has it been that long already?) and as usual, Keighley is promising "spectacular game announcements and world premieres." The Game Awards 2022 will be held on December 8 in the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, and will be streamed across services like YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, and even TikTok. The show will also have special IMAX screenings for gamers and fans that can't attend in person.

The big news is TGA 2022 will now have a brand new Best Adaptation awards category. This includes transmedia adaptations of video game franchises including movies, TV shows, podcasts, books, comics, and other sources of entertainment that "authentically adapt the source material."

Sony has revealed its new premium answer to the Xbox Elite controller.

Sony's new PlayStation 5 DualSense Edge is a new high-end controller aimed at enthusiast gamers, complete with paddles, customizable buttons, and swappable analog sticks. The news comes weeks after the controller was originally leaked by Tom Henderson, and folds into Sony's plans to blend gaming with esports with its new INZONE lineup of hardware.

"Designed to give you an edge in gameplay by allowing you to create custom controls, the DualSense Edge wireless controller invites you to craft your own unique gaming experience tailored to your playstyle," Sony said in a recent PlayStation Blog post.

Destiny 2's new subclass isn't poison; it's a new Darkness power called Strand.

Destiny 2's big new Lightfall expansion is coming in February 2023. Unlike other expansions, Lightfall is a big, bombastic and colorful macho hero power fantasy straight out of the 1980s. It's something that you'd see in an old action flick with a significant sci-fi bent, and the best part about the expansion is the brand new subclass.

Destiny 2's new subclass is called Strand, and it takes direct inspiration from The Matrix and Doctor Strange. Strand essentially lets you manipulate the fabric of reality with green, glowing light; guardians will have a brand new grappling hook that can hook onto any point in any environment--even free-floating air--and also has offensive mix-and-match abilities for disabling foes, damaging them with explosive attacks, and more.

Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi has opened up a little bit about his new upcoming game, and it sounds pretty damn good.

In a recent interview with 4Players, Nagoshi delivers some interesting tidbits on his first game for NetEase. The Yakuza series mastermind says his new game will take inspiration from Quentin Tarantino's films, who are jam-packed with a unique auteur style that somehow blends tons of cinematic homages with stark originality.

Nagoshi specifically mentions that his game may take the choice bits and pieces from Tarantino's works--the more memorable quirky humor mixed with a certain degree of violence. While not explicitly mentioned, Nagoshi seems to lean more towards Pulp Fiction's camaraderie, storytelling, and mobster crime than Kill Bill's blood-spraying mayhem.

UPDATE: Sony's PlayStation UK account has also Tweeted the same announcement.

Sony's next-gen PlayStation VR2 headset is coming early 2023, PlayStation France has confirmed.

A new Tweet from PlayStation France may have accidentally revealed the PSVR2's release window ahead of schedule, The Tweet, which is still live, simply states "Disponible debut 2023," which translates to "available early 2023."

Tales From the Borderlands is coming back, but Telltale may not be involved in the new game.

Gearbox Software and 2K Games have confirmed a new Tales From the Borderlands game will be revealed at Gamescom's Opening Night Live ceremony tomorrow, August 23 at 2PM EST. Both the publisher and developer teased a few images on Twitter, but exact details on the project (and those involved) are largely unknown.

It does appear that Telltale Games isn't developing the game, and this could mean a more action-oriented focus for the project. Telltale Games developed the first Tales From the Borderlands game and received generally favorable reviews.

aProject Cars 1 & 2 will be pulled from Steam, the PlayStation Store, and the Xbox marketplace starting next month, developer Slightly Mad Studios has confirmed.

A bit ago EA bought Codemasters for $1.2 billion, which included Slightly Mad Studios and games like F1 and Project Cars. Now the developers have confirmed licensing rights for the racing sims have ran out and some games will be pulled off the market. The removals will happen in the next few months: Project Cars 2 will be delisted from all platforms on September 21, and Project Cars will be removed on October 3.

Slightly Mad Studios was careful to say that Project Cars and Project Cars 2 will retail full functionality and features for those who already own a copy. The game simply won't be available for sale after those dates.

Saudi Arabia appears to be the first worldwide government to not object to Microsoft's $68.7 billion buyout of Activision-Blizzard.

From the FTC in the United States to CADE in Brazil, anti-competitive regulatory bodies across the world are currently scrutinizing Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. Now it looks like the first overseas agency has chosen to let the deal go through.

Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Competition (GAC) has announced that it will not object to Microsoft's deal to purchase Activision-Blizzard's outstanding shares. "General Authority for Competition issued a NO OBJECTION CERTIFICATION with respect to the completion of the economic concentration transaction between Microsoft Corporation and Activision Blizzard, Inc.,"reads a recent Tweet from the agency (here's a direct link to the GAC website, too).

Embracer Group has acquired Middle-earth Enterprises and now has free reign to make video games based on Tolkien's legendary Lord of the Rings saga.

Embracer is taking over the world of gaming and the world of Middle-earth. The decentralized giant has now purchased some of the powerful IP rights in the history of entertainment with the acquisition of Lord of the Rings content rights-holders.

Middle-earth Enterprises, a division of the Saul Zaentz company, can do a lot of things with Tolkien's universe including video game adaptations, films, board games, theme parks, merch, and even stage plays. They don't, however, own the rights to Tolkien's literary works. Embracer does not own the Lord of the Rings publishing rights--only the rights for certain adaptations.

SEGA has announced plans to adapt two more iconic gaming franchises into feature-length films: Comix Zone and Space Channel 5.

The billion-dollar success of the Sonic The Hedgehog films has changed how games companies think about film adaptations. Sonic broke the decades-long curse that Nintendo originally started with the ill-fated Mario Bros. film with Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo. Now SEGA wants to expand its properties even more, and has announced plans to bring more of its games to the big screen.

Comix Zone and Space Channel 5 are the next round of games getting the silver screen treatment. Comix Zone, a stylish side-scrolling beat-em-up where a comic artist gets pulled into his comic book creation, was released in 1995 for the SEGA Genesis. Space Channel 5 is another cult hit released on the SEGA Dreamcast in 1999 as a dancing game with a distinct 1960s retro-futurism style.

Meta was roasted en masse for sharing a very graphically downgraded image of its Horizon Worlds metaverse. Now Mark Zuckerberg shows everyone how Horizon will really look.

A few days ago, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared an image of what its new metaverse would look like. The graphics were decidedly unimpressive, especially for a company that has spent $18 billion on its VR and metaverse plans since 2020. The image was memed mercilessly and the fledgling metaverse platform was turned into a laughing stock.

In a bid to get ahead of the negative PR (or at least as much as possible), Zuckerberg shared a new upgraded image of what Horizon Worlds will actually look like and assured consumers (and watching investors) that Horizon was rapidly iterating and accelerating. The differences between the images remind us of the leap from DS to the Nintendo Switch--there's a stark night-and-day contrast.

UPDATE: Ubisoft has squashed the rumors: "We're not making a Blade game," the publisher said.

Ubisoft could be developing a new AAA game based on Marvel's stylish katana-wielding vampire hunter.

New evidence suggests that Ubisoft could be working on a new Blade game for Marvel. The info was compiled by YouTuber JorRaptor and lays out a pretty convincing series of events pointing towards a potential Blade game of some sort. It's all speculation of course and nothing has been confirmed.

Blizzard reiterates something that most gamers already knew: Diablo IV is meant to be a never-ending live service game, and Blizzard is ready to serve up tons of content year-round.

Yesterday Blizzard confirmed that Diablo IV will two forms of monetization: an optional premium currency used to purchase cosmetic microtransactions, and paid season passes that will give cosmetic rewards. This will fund the most ambitious content expansion in Diablo history with tons of seasonal updates.

Blizzard recently said that it has an "army of developers" ready to bombard players with Diablo IV content. The game will expand with seasonal structure that sees 4 seasons a year. Every 3 months, gamers will get a bunch of new free content to consume and digest including new items, quality-of-life improvements, questlines and characters, and randomized events to make things interesting. Seasons are also like Ladders in Diablo II and require players to restart a brand new character for the 3-month term.