Gaming - Page 352

Datamined info suggests that Sony could be preparing its own PlayStation games launcher on PC. If true, Sony has a unique opportunity to unify PlayStation consoles with the PC platform...but it'll take a lot of planning to pull it off.

Sony has broken down its walled garden and is now sharing its precious, once-console exclusive games to PC. It's a good business plan; selling games on as many platforms as possible means more revenues. It's doing well so far, and Sony expects to make $300 million from PC this year.

There's just one thing missing: Console-to-PC integration. Right now gamers have to buy titles on Steam or the Epic Games Store, both of which are segregated from the PlayStation platform. Cross-platform integration is where the real money is. Sony could solve this issue with its own PlayStation PC launcher, which could unify consoles and services together in an ecosystem. It won't be easy...and it could be pretty costly. But if done right, Sony could make the most out of the PC platform.

The games industry is a wild place. Often developers, publishers, and platform-holders will make big-budget marketing and exclusivity deals that are typically hush-hush. Things get really interesting when two separate companies publish the same game on different platforms. Case in point: Death Stranding, which is coming to Xbox Game Pass in a few days.

The Xbox Game Pass Twitter made it obvious that Death Stranding was coming over, but it's still kind of surprising. Sony paid big bucks to fund and publish the game on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, keeping Kojima Productions' first game off of Xbox for an undetermined period of time. Then 505 Games got publishing rights for the game on PC, releasing the game on Steam and the Epic Games Store. Now 505 Games is releasing Death Stranding on Xbox Game Pass, which is a direct billion-dollar competitor to the PlayStation empire.

Death Stranding will be available on Xbox Game Pass for PC on August 23, 2022 at 12am UTC / 5pm PT / 1am BST / 9am JST.

NVIDIA has pushed out a big new update for GeForce NOW, which drives up the support for higher resolutions and frame rates inside of your Chrome browser on the PC.

The company is really pushing for gamers to be more addicted than ever before, where NVIDIA says game streaming through GeForce NOW is the "easiest way to spice up a boring study session". NVIDIA's new update for GeForce NOW can stream all of the best PC games across virtually all devices... including low-powered PCs with games running inside of the Chrome or Edge web browser.

NVIDIA says that its top-tier "RTX 3080" members can "level up their browser gameplay" to a huge 1440p resolution (2560 x 1440) and 120FPS. You don't need an app installed at all, since you just need to open up a Chrome or Edge browser on your PC and go to play.geforcenow.com to select the new resolution and refresh rates in the GeForce NOW "Settings" menu. No downloads, no hassles, just gaming.

STALKER 2 developer GSC Game World has teamed with Ukrainian supermarket chain Silpo, in opening a new STALKER-themed Silpo grocery store in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Inside the STALKER-themed Silpo grocery store you'll find artwork, props, and even foodstuffs themed from STALKER. Walking around, and shopping in the supermarket must feel like you're literally in the middle of a store inside of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Not only is there the regular grocery shopping area of the STALKER-themed Silpo grocery store, but there's a shop called "Vlasna Confectionary" that sells coffee, drinks, pizza, pastries, and sweets to eat and drink while they're shopping. There's also a "Traditional Shop" that sells products that were manufactured by Ukrainian companies.

Bandai Namco executives say the publisher will be more selective in what games it chooses to develop and release in the future.

Most games companies saw a drop in earnings in Q1...but Bandai Namco was an exception. The company made $692 million on digital games in Q1, up over 130% year-over-year, driven by strong sales of games like Elden Ring (which is at 16.6 million copies sold now). Bandai Namco wants to keep the ball rolling and has assured investors that it will be more selective in the development projects that it invests in--an interesting comment since Bandai is jumping headlong into the nascent metaverse.

"From this term, in order to improve the quality of titles in development, we have further strengthened our judging system through a support committee of high-level producers," Bandai Namco executive management told investors in a Q1 Q&A session.

Bandai Namco offers more details on its upcoming NFT and metaverse plans, confirms the first metaverse will be set in the Gundam franchise.

Bandai Namco sees opportunity with the metaverse and NFTs. The company has ambitions to create metaverses for each of its most popular franchises including Dragon Ball, Gundam. and possibly even Tekken. Bandai Namco's idea of a metaverse is a kind of hub that integrates gaming, merchandise, and digital content in a social sphere where gamers can connect, buy, and play.

The first metaverse will be based on Gundam. It's called Side-G and is a kind of galaxy with multiple "colonies" for different activities and content; one colony will be for esports, another for Gunpla models, and even one for games. In a new Q&A session, Bandai Namco tells investors that its metaverses, and incoming NFTs that are incorporated into the metaverses, are not meant for speculative purposes--e.g. trying to make thousands of dollars with artificial scarcity.

Amazon has leaked the full extent of Dead Island 2's details presumably ahead of a big Gamescom reveal.

Dead Island 2 isn't dead. We've known that for a while, but it's still great to see game's grave is empty. New leaks from Amazon confirm Dead Island 2 will shamble onto marketplaces and store shelves in February 2023 and bring ridiculous, over-the-top mayhem with it.

Amazons accidentally published Dead Island 2's game page ahead of schedule, revealing pricing ($69.99 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S), release date (February 3, 2023), and a ton game details. We've collected the details in an easy-to-read list below.

Elden Ring's continued success helps Bandai Namco earn $312 million in game sales, up more than 50% year-over-year.

Elden Ring is one of the best-selling games in recent memory and one of Bandai Namco's most powerful titles. In a recent Q1 presentation (Japanese), Bandai Namco confirms that Elden Ring has sold a total of 16.6 million copies worldwide across PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Since the last figure was 13.4 million as of FY21's end on March 31, 2022, the new numbers indicate Elden Ring moved about 3.2 million copies during April - June.

Bandai Namco's total digital entertainment revenues are up over 134% year-over-year to $692.418 million driven in no small part by Elden Ring's success. In fact, the game made up nearly 1/3rd of total game volume sales during the period. Bandai Namco also saw significant boosts in total digital gaming profits, which hit a new all-time high of $227.28 million.

Meta spent $18 billion on...this? Mark Zuckerberg shares a bewildering image of its hopeful metaverse world that backfires as gamers, users, and consumers lampoon its hollow and outdated portrayal.

Meta's new Horizon Worlds is looking rough. The image speaks for itself and reminds me of those fake DS game covers that often pop up on game forums back in the mid-2000's. Meta has used Facebook's billion-dollar ad revenue to fund Horizon Worlds, a new platform that it hopes will pioneer the metaverse. The company, who changed their name from the one of the most iconic compound words in modern history to a moniker that reflect its new evangelized platform, spent $18 billion on its VR/metaverse plans since 2020.

Meanwhile, Fortnite is running laps around Horizon Worlds with its usage of pop-culture references and continual expansion. Sure Fortnite is an actual game and Horizon Worlds is a watered-down version of PlayStation Home that aims to be ultra-monetized with cosmetics and eventually advertisements, but the integration of cross-media references and cultural icons remains the same and Meta could learn important lessons from Epic Games.

The devs behind the Just Cause games were making an Iron Man game back in 2012...but it was ultimately cancelled. New interviews unearth interesting details about the failed project.

For some reason the games industry hasn't delivered many Iron Man games. The idea of flying around as the charismatic billionaire and blasting enemies in high-tech future suits is just prime territory for any game; case in point--Iron Man's escapades in 2018's Avengers were some of the best parts of the game.

10 years ago, the stars almost aligned. Disney conscripted Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios to make an Iron Man game. It sounds like a match made in heaven. If it's one thing Avalanche knows, it's creating third-person shoot-em-up/melee chaos with flight mechanics and advanced physics systems. Sadly, the game was cancelled after years of development. Disney simply wanted the game to be shipped way too quickly and Avalanche just couldn't do it.

Bungie has detailed Destiny 2's new Arc 3.0 revamp ahead of the game's upcoming live stream reveal on August 23.

There's electricity in the air. Arc 3.0 is on the horizon in Destiny 2, bringing with it a significant subclass overhaul following Void 3.0 and Solar 3.0. The new class update brings a host of exciting changes including a new Titan one-shot melee ability called Thunderclap as well as a brand new Arc super for the Hunter called Gathering Storm.

Here are some details about Gathering Storm...and yes, it sounds pretty epic: "The Hunter leaps into the air, hurling their staff into the ground (or into an unlucky enemy) like a spear. Upon impact, the staff emits a damaging burst that jolts nearby enemies. Soon after, a giant bolt of lightning strikes the staff and overcharges it, creating a large damage zone around it for several seconds-while overcharged, the staff sends out arcs of lightning to damage any enemies that move near it."

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered just launched on the PC, and now we're hearing that Sony might unveil its own PlayStation launcher for its PC games.

The discovery was made by data miners and then VideoGamesChronicle (VGC) "verified the files and seen the reference to the PlayStation PC launcher". Sony has been slowly releasing their PC games through both Steam and the Epic Games Store, but we should expect a new home for all things PlayStation games on the PC soon.

Recently, we reported that Sony added a new PC gaming hub to the PlayStation website, which sees Microsoft walking in the same steps as Microsoft: where they will have flagship PlayStation 5 games from the console, onto the PC and through the purported new PlayStation launcher. This is only a good thing, especially given how good the PC ports have been so far, culminating with Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered.

Flying Wild Hog has delayed its upcoming third-person shooter game Evil West by two months so it can "deliver the best experience to everyone."

Evil West was originally set to release on September 20, but has been pushed back to November 22, 2022 as developers cite challenges of making a smaller-scale AA game for five platforms.

"We are working our very best to achieve our vision of Evil West, and to meet your expectations. Evil West releases on five platforms, including multiple generations of consoles. Giving our game more polish is crucial to provide our players with not only good but also lasting memories. That's something we've always pursued," Polish dev Flying Wild Hog said on Twitter.

Disney teases a handful of exciting new game reveals during an event showcase in September.

Disney recently announced its own post-Gamescom reveal stream set for September 9, complete with a bunch of game reveals, updates, and more. The event is part Disney's annual D23 Expo and should unearth key details about mysterious upcoming games.

The official press release says gamers can expect a "sneak peek" at the new Marvel game from Uncharted creative visionary Amy Hennig. The project was originally announced in October 2021 and is described as a "narrative-driven, blockbuster action-adventure game." Job listings at Skydance New Media, where Amy Hennig is leading development, says the game will be a singleplayer Unreal Engine game.

Microsoft has inadvertently revealed Xbox One console sales while confirming a massive sales lead for Sony's PlayStation 4.

Microsoft legal representation has delivered figures that the company itself no longer divulges: Xbox One console sales. The info was spotted in Microsoft's latest filing in the ongoing regulatory discussions with Brazil's government. CADE, Brazil's own FTC-like watchdog agency, is probing the games industry for data and insights about Microsoft's $68.7 billion buyout of Activision-Blizzard for any instances of possible anti-competitive practices.

According to one particular passage, the PS4 has sold over twice as many Xbox One consoles. Since the PS4 has sold 117.2 million units, this means the Xbox One has sold less than 58.6 million units worldwide. Microsoft evangelists like Paul Thurrott put the number more in the 50-55 million range. "Sony has surpassed Microsoft in terms of console sales and installed base, having sold more than twice as many Xbox in the last generation," the document reads.

AMD has pushed out their new Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.8.1 drivers, which are ready for the web-swinging world of Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered on the PC.

The new Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.8.1 drivers have built-in support for the just-released Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered on the PC, as well as Thymesia, and support for Radeon Boost using Variable Rate Shading (VRS) in Halo Infinite.

There are the usual fixed issues, with Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card owners no long getting their display flickering black when switching between video playback and gameplay windows. Video output freezing in Project Zomboid has been solved, and games based on the LOVE2D engine rendering incorrectly has been solved. If you're using a mixed reality headset, flickering black and jittery movement on "some AMD Graphics Products" including the Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card have been solved with the new Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.8.1 drivers.

DOOM has been modded onto so many things at this point that I want to see how far things can be pushed, but now id Software's game-changing first-person shooter has made it onto a John Deere tractor, for real.

The current DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas, with a video posted by Sick Codes on Twitter that saw New Zealand modder "Skelegant" getting DeHacked DOOM running on a John Deere tractor display. Specifically, the John Deere 4240 tractor, with DOOM modified so that you're playing in a cornfield mowing down your enemies in the tractor... so, so cool.

Sick Codes is an Australian who lives in Asia, and isn't just getting DOOM running on a John Deere tractor, he's created a new jailbreak that provides him access to the tractor's internal systems. What does this mean exactly? Well, it allows farmers that own John Deere tractors to perform repairs on their expensive machinery, as John Deere itself has software that actually blocks people from repairing the tractors themselves. Pretty sick.

The SFX masters at Weta Workshop are working on a new Lord of the Rings game and you should be very excited.

Before today I didn't know who Weta Workshop was, but a bit of investigation has unearthed one of my new favorite companies (at least in what they've created...sadly there's a culture of workplace misconduct at Weta). Weta Workshop is a New Zealand-based SFX and prop company who has made some of the most iconic and dazzling visual setpieces in cinema and TV history, helping solidify decades of entertainment; they created armors for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings epics and worked on countless projects like the old Hercules and Xenia shows, Hellboy, The Last Samurai, District 9, Elysium, Mad Max Fury Road, Dune, and many more.

Today Weta announced that it is working with Private Division, the same publishing branch that brought The Outer Worlds to market, on a new Lord of the Rings game. The project is in early development and won't be ready until Take-Two's FY24, which ends in March 2024. Weta says the game will be very unique and unlike anything gamers have experienced in the world of Middle-Earth before.

Rockstar Games earnings are expected to dip this year and this signals GTA 6 won't release release until after March 2024.

Rockstar Games is expected to make less than $1 billion in net bookings during Take-Two Interactive's FY23 period, executive management for the company announced during a recent earnings call. While the numbers weren't clearly outlined, a quick bit of math gives us some figures.

Take-Two says it expects to make $5.8 to $5.9 billion from net bookings in FY23, and that Rockstar Games should make up roughly 17% of earnings. This puts Rockstar's share of net bookings in the range of $986 million on the low-end and $1 billion on the higher-end. What's interesting is that these are net bookings, not net revenues, and on average net bookings are typically higher because these figures include full online content revenues from games like NBA 2K, GTA Online, and Red Dead Online.

Unity teased its new real-time demo at SIGGRAPH 2022, with Lion debuting in the glorious 4K resolution and running at 30FPS on the Sony PlayStation 5.

The new Lion demo from Unity utilizes a bunch of Unity Engine features including some real-time hair and fur rendering, powered by Weta Digital's new Wig hair and fur tool. Remember Unity purchased Weta Digital in late 2021, where Unity Technical Artist Sara Hansen explained the use of their tools in the new Lion demo: "Wig is a different way of working - it's actually the fastest grooming tool that I've ever used".

"A high-quality hero groom - which would take me several months in another grooming package - is much faster to create in Wig. It takes just a couple of weeks, and some grooms go from weeks to create in other tools to only one or few days in Wig, and at far better quality levels and with greater artist controllability... Even when you have to react to detailed art direction feedback notes, like adjusting a specific strand from a reference shot, it's easy to author in Wig".