Gaming - Page 363

E3 2023 is coming back as an in-person event, but the entire show won't be accessible for everyone.

Today the Entertainment Software Association announced that iconic trade show E3 is making its triumphant return as an in-person event, and will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center as per tradition.

E3 2023 will be held from June 13 - 15, but will be split between two different types of access and one of them will be closed to the public. The industry hall, which includes developers, publishers, games media, and distributors, will be closed to the general public. The gamers section, which will be open to the public from June 15-16, is a free-for-all of game demos, promotions, and exhibitors.

Take-Two Interactive may have allocated a max budget of $2 billion for Grand Theft Auto 6.

According to newly published DMs with the infamous GTA 6 hacker, the upcoming Grand Theft Auto game could be the most expensive title in the series. The leaker, colloquially known as "teapotuberhacker," was reportedly in discussions with other hackers regarding the stolen Rockstar Games data. Throughout the DMs, the hacker claims that Rockstar has spent $2.5 billion on GTA 6 so far--a number which has since been amended.

This is an incredibly high budget for any entertainment property, and would make Grand Theft Auto 6 the most expensive video game ever made. The information is incredibly shaky, however, and shouldn't be taken as 100% fact.

Cyberpunk 2077 has a runners high and is sprinting through Steam's top-selling and top-played charts.

CD Projekt RED is currently reaping the benefits of an underdog comeback story. CDPR successfully executed a one-two punch; the first punch, a massive wave of patches, updates, and a PS5/Xbox Series X/S re-release, took nearly 2 years of training to pull off. The second punch was effective use of transmedia, more specifically the new sci-fi Edgerunners anime series on Netflix. CD Projekt fixed the game so that it would be ready when millions of people saw Edgerunners and wanted to explore the Cyberpunk 2077 universe.

The bet paid off. Cyberpunk 2077 has broken into Steam's top charts, and was briefly the #1 top-selling game on the platform today. At the time of writing, Cyberpunk 2077 is the third best-selling game on Steam, second to Modern Warfare 2 and Slime Rancher.

Our suspicions have been confirmed: Sony's new CFI-1202 line of PlayStation 5 console revisions use a new 6nm SoC.

Sony's new PlayStation 5 SoC has been upgraded to a new 6nm APU codenamed Oberon Plus. According to Angstronomics, the PS5's SoC has been shrunk from 300mm2 to 260mm2, representing a 15% decrease. This isn't a surprise: We've been hearing about the PS5 moving to 6nm since 2021.

The new 6nm APU is built on TSMC's N6 node, which offers production advantages including better yields and faster time-to-market. In short, Sony can make more PS5 chips faster than before and reduce any defects. The move to N6 also theoretically reduces costs because TSMC can produce more chips at a similar price factor. The move to N6 will help Sony meet its ambitious 18 million PlayStation 5 shipment and move more consoles throughout global markets.

mThe next mainline Resident Evil game will not feature the Winters family--Capcom says the saga has been completed and they're ready to move on.

After two big AAA games filled with trauma, excitement, and total horror chaos, the saga of Ethan, Mia, and Rose Winters has officially been concluded. The family's monster-mash storyline will end with the new Shadow's Rose story DLC expansion for Resident Evil Village on October 27, Capcom has announced.

Capcom told IGN that it is "creating the Shadows of Rose story to conclude the Winters family saga."

Certain Affinity reveals new tidbits on Halo Infinite's new mysterious Tatanka game mode, which is rumored to be Halo's very own unique answer to the battle royale genre.

In a recent interview with VentureBeat, Certain Affinity studio boss Max Hoberman outlines a few new details about Halo Infinite's upcoming Tatanka gametype. There's no confirmation on whether or not it's a BR, or when it will release, but Hoberman does acknowledge a few interesting things.

"The biggest thing we're doing that's public right now...For more than two years now we've been working on Halo Infinite," Hoberman said.

Sources close to Twitch have told Bloomberg that the billion-dollar streaming company is more focused on profits than it is on creators.

Following 2021's reported earnings of $2.657billion in revenues, Twitch is universally enacting a 50/50 revenue split for all streamers. In 2023, Twitch's top streamers will go from a lucrative premium contract that gave them 70% of all revenues while Twitch kept 30% to an even-keeled 50/50 split. The announcement was controversial and caused uproar in Twitch's top echelon, especially streamers that employ workers to help run their brands--millionaire streamers have turned Twitch broadcasting into a business.

This latest business decision was made by management who reportedly cares more about numbers than they do about streamers. Twitch makes less than one half of a percent of Amazon's yearly revenues ($2.67 billion compared to $470 billion), and the service also runs on Amazon Web Services to boot. Sources have told Bloomberg that Twitch's top brass, which includes CEO Emmet Shear and President Dan Clancy, who made the wildly unpopular 50/50 split announcement, are targeting profits and product rather than creators.

Cyberpunk 2077 continues gaining strong momentum following the release of Edgerunners on PC.

Cyberpunk 2077 is now CD Projekt RED's most popular game in terms of concurrent players on PC. While The Witcher 3 still holds the top spot for game copies sold (The Witcher 3 has sold 40 million versus Cyberpunk 2077's 18 million), more people are playing the sci-fi shooter on PC right now than they ever have in The Witcher 3.

At the time of writing, Cyberpunk 2077 had over 114,000 concurrent players on Steam in the last 24-hours, beating The Witcher 3's all-time concurrent player peak of 103,329 by some 11,647 users. In short, Cyberpunk 2077 had more players in the last 24 hours on Steam than The Witcher 3 ever has.

The graphics and effects aren't the only thing that's getting upgraded with the new Splinter Cell remake--Ubisoft has said it will update the game with a new modernized story.

Ubisoft is completely remaking the original Splinter Cell in Avalanche's powerful Snowdrop engine, complete with next-gen effects, lighting, and graphics. The game's subject matter and story are also getting a revamp to reflect a contemporary timeline; the world has changed quite a bit since the original game's release on the original Xbox, and Ubisoft wants to capture the technological and sociological evolutions in the new remake.

In a new job listing for a Splinter Cell remake scriptwriter, Ubisoft confirms its teams are "rewriting and updating the story" to make it fit in today's high-tech world.

A 17 year-old teenager has been arrested for alleged involvement in the recent Rockstar Games server hack and subsequent GTA 6 leak.

The perpetrator of the damaging GTA 6 leaks may have been apprehended by London police. Today the City of London Police announced that they had arrested a 17-year-old Oxfordshire teen on suspected hacking.

"On the evening of Thursday 22 September 2022, the City of London Police arrested a 17-year-old in Oxfordshire on suspicion of hacking, as part of an investigation supported by the National Crime Agency's National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU)."

United States House of Representatives Congressman Matt Gaetz (R, FL) is joining Twitch to promote his America First message to younger audiences.

Just yesterday Twitch announced that it would not enact a 70-30 revenue sharing split and would in fact reduce revenue splits to just 50-50. This new policy was massively controversial and has sent shockwaves through the billion-dollar streaming industry. Twitch's image fell even farther following a revealing Twitch expose from Bloomberg's Cecilia D'Anastasio.

Now Twitch is facing more pressure from audiences, fans, and social media followers as controversial Florida Republican Matt Gaetz has announced he will start streaming political messaging on his own Twitch channel.

Cyberpunk 2077 is back in the limelight for very good reasons this time.

Following a disastrous launch that tanked company share prices, CD Projekt has radically turned around Cyberpunk 2077 on all platforms. The studio has invested tremendous revenues into correcting the game's issues with a ton of patches, including a next-gen re-release. While gamers haven't entirely forgotten about Cyberpunk 2077's launch woes, they certainly are willing to buy and return to the game.

According to CD Projekt, Cyberpunk 2077 has surged in popularity on consoles and PC. Over 1 million people have played Cyberpunk 2077 every day this week thanks in no small part to the new Edgerunners anime. This trend clearly validates CD Projekt's transmedia focus which stretches its key IPs and licensed franchises into merchandise and TV shows, including Edgerunners and the Witcher Netflix series.

Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden has announced he has joined Tencent Games as a strategic advisor.

With over $30 billion from gaming, Tencent is the world's largest video games company and the Chinese is only getting bigger with continued multi-studio investments. To help lead Tencent's evolution past live services and more into infrastructure and high-profile games, Shawn Layden, who helped Sony earn mega-billions during the PlayStation 4 era, has joined Tencent as a strategic advisor.

"Looks like LinkedIn leapt the species wall and the news is here. Nevertheless, quick update to say I've joined Tencent as a strategic advisor and am excited to be working with them as interactive entertainment drives technology and innovation," Layden said on Twitter.

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.