Gaming - Page 364

Hideo Kojima officially confirms that he's making a cloud game for Xbox.

The reports were right: Kojima is indeed making a new cloud game for Xbox. The project wasn't formally announced, but Kojima did say it will be a unique one-of-a-kind type of experience. It is likely this particular game is the recently leaked Overdose project starring Death Stranding's Margaret Qualley.

"Yes, there is a game I have always wanted to make. It's a completely new game and one that no one has ever experienced or seen before. I've waited a very long time for the day when I could finally start to create it,"Kojima said at the event.

The Necromancer returns as Diablo IV's fifth and final class, bringing a bunch of old classic spells and abilities and a few new tricks.

Diablo IV's Necro looks like a big evolution over Diablo II and III with four total skill trees: Bone, darkness, blood, and summons. A recent quarterly update confirms some of the new skills and abilities coming to D4's Necro.

Bone skills are relatively physical in nature, and thus benefit more heavily from effects such as Critical Strike. These skills also benefit from having and spending large amounts of Essence, as they have various effects that can cause each of their individual attacks to be even more powerful.

Diablo IV will let players trade in spells, summons and abilities they don't want to use in exchange for character buffs and upgrades.

Blizzard is giving Diablo IV players more power to focus on specialized min-max builds. In a recent quarterly update post, the developers confirmed that Diablo IV's new necromancer class will be able to "sacrifice" certain summon spells in exchange for bonuses. It's unclear if this feature is exclusive to the Necromancer or not, but it could possibly be available to other classes.

"In addition to all this customization, we have also added the ability for players to sacrifice different components of their army for personal benefits. Next to each unit type in the Book of the Dead is an extra option to sacrifice the ability to summon that unit in exchange for a personal, permanent buff,"Diablo IV lead class designer Adam Jackson said.

Ubisoft will hold a special Assassin's Creed live stream event tomorrow, Tuesday, June 14 at 12PM EST / 9AM PST, the company today announced.

Ubisoft skipped its annual games showcase but it looks like they could make up for it with a new Assassin's Creed livestream. The developer is holding a showcase that should look at the past, present, and future of the Assassin's Creed franchise.

Speculation insists that Ubisoft could give teases on upcoming Assassin's Creed titles. Ubisoft is currently working on two new games in the franchise: One game, codenamed Rift, would focus on Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Basim as a standalone game that could launch in 2022 or 2023. The other game, Assassin's Creed Infinity, is a massive new game that could merge live and singleplayer gaming together.

Our predictions were right: Diablo IV will indeed launch next year to coincide with a significant revenue forecast jump at Activision-Blizzard.

Yesterday during the big Xbox showcase, Blizzard announced that Diablo IV, its most ambitious Diablo game yet, will launch in 2023 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The developers outlined some major features coming to Diablo IV including cross-play and cross-progression, couch co-op, social events, and tons of endgame content that will keep players busy for many years.

In this article we'll outline a few of the things announced during the showcase and highlight what Blizzard developers said about Diablo IV. One thing remains clear: This is going to be a massively replayable game.

Blizzard has opened beta pre-registrations for Diablo IV ahead of tomorrow's big Xbox showcase.

It looks like a Diablo IV beta may be announced tomorrow during Microsoft's gaming event. Blizzard updated the game's site to include a pre-registration link alongside what appears to be confirmation of Diablo IV skipping PS4 and Xbox One consoles. If this banner is accurate, Diablo IV would only be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Battle.net.

The site doesn't confirm of mention anything other than pre-registration sign-ups and there's no guarantee that you'll get in even if you sign up. Our speculation indicates Diablo 4 could release in 2023 to coincide with Activision-Blizzard's massive growth forecast for that year and beyond.

What if Bethesda released a remake on The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind on Xbox Series X/S? Here's what it might look like.

Morrowind is one of those timeless RPGs that owes a lot of its allure to a unique visual style. The game looks so bizarre and otherworldly, and the old-school early 2000's graphics seem to only get better with age. But what if Morrowind was remade in approximation to its original engine? We've seen projects like Skywind that upgrade Morrowind in Skyrim's engine...but what if the remake stuck closer to the original?

YouTuber GamoXIS gives us an idea of what a Morrowind remake could look like. With the help of 200+ mods, GamoXis delves into Morrowind's exotic wilderness and showcases impressive high-res textures, beautiful, reflective water, and an ENB filter that wraps everything together. There's incredibly detailed grass and Vivec is a gleaming alabaster city that's just as resplendent as something out of ancient Thebes.

Diablo Immortal enjoyed the largest launch in the franchise's history...but that's to be expected considering it's free-to-play.

Remember when Microsoft made much ado about Halo Infinite being the largest Halo launch ever? Of course it was. Halo has never been released as a worldwide free-to-play game before. Now Blizzard is making a similar announcement with Diablo.

Diablo Immortal is officially the largest Diablo game launch in the aRPG's 26-year history. Blizzard says that Diablo Immortal had 10 million installs on PC and mobile in one week, which is no small feat. For context, Diablo III sold 6.3 million copies at retail in its first week and went on to sell many million more with Reaper of Souls on PC, the Diablo III base game on Xbox 360/PS3, and the Reaper of Souls re-release on PS4 and Xbox One.

Netflix takes its "go big or go home" strategy to video games and will have 50 mobile games ready for subscribers through 2022.

Netflix Geeked Week delivered a glut of gaming news. The streamer is producing a smorgasbord of game adaptations including new shows based on Tekken, Dragon Age, and Castlevania. Actual video games are coming in a huge fusillade drop. Netflix has teamed up with a ton of indie game developers and has announced 18 new games coming free to subscribers, including Raji: An Ancient Evil, Spirit Farer, Kentucky Route Zero, and Oxenfree--among many others.

The streamer has confirmed that Netflix subscribers will never have to pay extra for mobile titles, and the games will not feature any kind of in-game purchases or monetization. Netflix plans to roll out games selection to other platforms including PC, TVs, and consoles in the future.

The Last of Us Part I remake on PlayStation 5 is no simple re-release. Naughty Dog put tremendous effort into the game's optimizations and performance.

There's two camps around the new Last of Us remake. The first group is massively hyped to replay the game on PS5. The other camp wonders why the remake is even happening, and feels it's a waste of time and resources. One thing remains clear, though: Naughty Dog took the remake very seriously and put a lot of manpower and technical work into the project.

At the Summer Game Fest, Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann reveals that animators put some real hours into the game:

Activision-Blizzard had no real need to release the over-monetized Diablo Immortal onto PCs and mobiles; the company already makes enough money.

Publicly-traded companies have one goal: Maximizing shareholder value, ideally through perpetual growth in revenues and profits. Activision-Blizzard, which remains in the top 5 best-earning video game companies on the planet, is known for its emphasis on live services and monetization. But with Diablo Immortal, the company is pushing its luck during a time when its reputation is at serious risk.

Diablo Immortal is one of the most controversial video games of the last few years. The game features a complexly-layered microtransaction system predicated on even more complex F2P dynamics, which reinforce habits and behaviors specifically designed to keep users engaged and locked into the ecosystem. The game doesn't just have skins, though; Diablo Immortal has multiple microtransaction points that range from buying Legendary Crests to farm endgame gems (gem drop odds are astronomically against players) to buying in-game currency to list your gear on an auction house.

Activision-Blizzard has announced that it will formally recognize the United States' first video games workers union.

A new Activision press release confirms the billion-dollar publisher has recognized Raven Software's collective union and will begin bargaining with the Communication Workers of America.

"We will begin negotiations with the Communications Workers of America related to the 27 quality assurance employees at Raven Software, the majority of whom have chosen to be represented by this union. With the election having concluded, we will engage in good faith negotiations to enter into a collective bargaining agreement," Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said in an email to employees published earlier today.

Bloober Team's new Layers of Fears game project isn't just a remastered collection of the two previous games in Unreal Engine 5. It's something more expansive.

Yesterday Bloober team announced Layers of Fears, a new game in their landmark horror franchise. At first glance the project looks like a double remaster collection of Layers of Fear, Layers of Fear Inheritance, and Layers of Fear 2 in Unreal Engine 5. While that's technically true, it's not exactly the case. Layers of Fears is more like a merger of the two games with expanded content and a "new approach" that will cast a "new light on the overarching narrative."

"We are bringing back a franchise that is really special for us, in a new form that will give players a truly fresh gaming experience and that will shed new light on the overall story," said Bloober Team CEO Pitor Babieno.

Savvy Gaming Group's $1 billion investment could earn it a seat on Embracer Group's board of directors, provided shareholders agree.

Saudi Arabia's $100 billion Public Investment Fund recently bought $1 billion worth of Embracer Group shares. The games company recognizes the PIF, which is run by Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, as a long-term investor into its business.

In a lengthy email, Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors defends the company's decision to "accept investment from a non-Democratic country" and that he believes Savvy Gaming Group will "genuinely support the global ecosystem for our industry."

Outriders fans rejoice: The new Worldslayer expansion is a massive content drop that will fuel a LOT of looter-shooter action.

Square Enix and People Can Fly just dropped a huge 22-minute gameplay showcase for Worldslayer, the new Outriders expansion coming June 30. The expansion is focused on endgame content that includes the Trial of Tarya Gratar, an ancient zone that will "push you, your builds, and your tactics to the ultimate test."

The new Tarya Gratar zone actually has its own day/night cycle and is described as a "gauntlet run" with roguelike elements that put you right at he beginning if you win, quit, or die too many times. "Each time you start back at the beginning, you'll be even more powerful and better equipped to succeed the next time," People Can Fly says.

Thanks to Shredder's Revenge and Konami's incoming Cowabunga Collection, 2022 is the best year for TMNT fans since the 1980s.

Yesterday DotEmu and Tribute Games revealed some delicious new toppings on the nostalgic pizza pie that is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder's Revenge. The upcoming 16-bit beat-em-up will feature an incredible 6-player local and online co-op for maximum old-school carnage, complete with extra playable characters like April O'Neil, the vigilante Casey Jones, and Master Splinter.

There's even a difficulty scaling option too: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge's enemy groups scale in size based on the number of players kicking shells, making multiplayer a totally intense showdown against Shredder's minions."

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 isn't just a new game. It represents the evolution of the Call of Duty franchise using Infinity Ward's new shared games engine, which unifies Warzone and mainline games for the first time ever. Billed as the "most advanced Call of Duty yet," new gameplay footage backs up these claims with some impressive visuals and smooth performance.

Modern Warfare 2's first gameplay footage reveals a snippet of the Dark Water campaign mission and is actually an idea showcase of physics, graphics, effects, and the new emergent AI. The complexity of the wave and water effects mixed in with real-time weather and realistic, reflective lighting across all sources, coupled with the seamless lighting transitions, explosions, and the general high-resolution textures mesh extremely well with the smooth FPS throughout the demo.

"It's such a big moment for Modern Warfare 2 and everything that Infinity Ward has built, but it really marks the step-change--what we're calling a transformational moment for the entire franchise. You're going to see incredible rendering, incredible graphics, all the things that will be in the game itself built all-in-one shared engine now across Warzone and Modern Warfare 2 going forward," Activision's head of Call of Duty Johanna Faries said during the Summer Game Fest.

God of War Ragnarok may not be delayed into 2023, sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

Sony Santa Monica plans to release God of War Ragnarok in November 2022 on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Multiple sources have told Bloomberg about Sony's plans, and also say that Ragnarok was originally set for a September launch but moved to November. Naughty Dog's new The Last of Us PS5 remake will release in September instead.

The studio is expected to make a formal release date announcement sometime later this month, indicating that Sony is planning a special State of Play stream timed for the E3 summer season. The sequel was originally announced in 2020 and has been delayed multiple times due to COVID-19 disruptions. If it launches in 2022, Ragnarok will be a tentpole title to help complement Sony's massive 18 million PlayStation 5 shipment spree planned for the year.

Satellite internet such as SpaceX's Starlink comes with many benefits, but one benefit that may be considered least expected is gaming in rural areas.

SpaceX's intentions for Starlink are to provide an internet connection to individuals living out in rural areas, and while everyone may automatically assume that those individuals are in houses, that isn't always the case. One YouTuber called "TTTHEFINEPRINTTT" lives in a van and recently picked up Starlink so he could game wherever in the countryside he decides to park for the night.

Posted to his channel, the YouTuber showcases an unboxing of Starlink, its setup process, speed tests for his area, speed tests on top of a mountain, and of course, some gaming done over the SpaceX connection. The official SpaceX Twitter account saw the video and shared it, which was recently retweeted by Elon Musk, who wrote, "Play video games wherever you want".

Naughty Dog co-president and Last of Us director Neil Druckmann is working on a new secret game for the studio.

Uncharted and Last of Us developer Naughty Dog is pretty busy right now. The studio will release The Last of Us Remake on PS5 in September, and they're ramping up for an incredibly ambitious live service game that's bigger than anything they've done before. A separate time is also working on the studio's next AAA singleplayer epic.

Neil Druckmann confirmed the new game was in early dev: "I'm still making games. I haven't given up my day job. It's a little early to talk about it--maybe if someone at PlayStation wants to leak it then we could talk about it, otherwise we'll save it. I do have a new project but we'll save it for another Summer Game Fest," Neil Druckmann said at the tail end of this year's Summer Game Fest showcase with Goeff Keighley.