Gaming - Page 365

Hideo Kojima's dev studio has teased a new game, and it's likely the horror project that's been in planning phases for years now.

Kojima Productions recently confirmed it would not show a new game at the Tokyo Game Show, but that didn't stop the studio from hinting at its next project. The teaser comes by way of Kojima's longtime friend Geoff Keighley, who shared a mysterious image on Twitter.

Kojima has also met with horror director Jordan Peele (Get Out, NOPE) and it's possible he showed the horror game to Peele and asked for feedback and criticism.

Following an executive leadership shake up, 343 Industries has today confirmed that microtransactions will not come to Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

343i has abandoned all plans to monetize the Halo Master Chief Collection and will not sell in-game Spartan Points for real money. The studio announced the news in a recent Halo Waypoint update:

"We can confirm that we will not be further pursuing purchasable Spartan Points for MCC," the statement reads.

After losing an estimated $200 million from Avengers and Guardians of Galaxy, Japanese games publisher Square Enix is afraid of risk and is taking big measures to combat it...including possibly selling off stakes of its developers.

In a recent Q&A with investors, Square Enix made some very interesting comments about the future of its game studios. Executives in the Japanese games publisher, which is known for major franchises like Final Fantasy, said that management is open to the idea of "forming joint ventures and taking minority stake" in order to reduce the significant volatility involved with making games.

This volatility and risk was exposed with two major flops for Square Enix; the company's duo of Marvel games, Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, not only missed internal expectations but led to an estimated loss of $200 million. This heavy loss led Square Enix to sell its entire Western game studios branches, which include Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal, to Embracer Group for just $300 million. Also included in the deal were franchises that continually missed Square Enix's lofty expectations including Tomb Raider and Deus Ex.

Microsoft could be working on some new gaming-focused Surface products, with a new Surface Gaming laptop teased in some fresh rumors from Prime Gaming, with a spec sheet on the purported new gaming laptop leaked.

The new Microsoft Surface Gaming laptop should roll out with a 16-inch PixelSense Flow Display, with a native resolution of 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and refresh rate of 165Hz as well as Dolby Vision support. The spec sheet suggests Microsoft will be offering the option between mid-range and higher-end Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" mobile CPUs. Microsoft will reportedly offer two options: Core i7-12700H (14-core) or the Core i5-12500H (12-core).

Microsoft's new Surface Gaming laptop has 16GB of LPDDR4x memory by default, with the option for up to 32GB LPDDR4x memory. GPU wise, Microsoft would offer options of between an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU with 8GB GDDR6 memory or the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU with 4GB of GDDR6 memory.

Babylon's Fall will soon be taken offline and all characters, data, and content will be inaccessible and deleted, PlatinumGames has announced.

After one of the most disastrous launches in service game history, PlatinumGame's failed GaaS title Babylon's Fall is officially being taken off of life support. The developers have announced Babylon's Fall will be officially shut down on Monday, February 27, 2023 at 11PM PST/2AM EST.

Babylon's Fall has already been delisted from all digital and retail markets and is no longer available for sale anywhere. PlatinumGames an Square Enix have also pulled the game's premium currency from all markets alongside the game's delisting. In February 2023, everything will be removed from the servers and all gameplay data will be completely wiped out and deleted.

Bandai Namco is bringing its legendary fighting game to the PlayStation 5 with the age-old story line intact.

Tekken 8 was just announced at Sony's State of Play event, showcasing impressive new visuals and effects on Bandai Namco's updated engine tech. Like previous Tekkens, the eighth chapter will continue the intense brutal rivalry among the Mishimas; Tekken followed Heihachi's blood feud with Kazuya, and Tekken 8 will chronicle the intense clash between father and son, Kazuya Mishima and Jim Kazama and culminate in a final showdown.

As for the new upgraded tech, the game's reveal trailer was actually captured via in-game rendering on the PlayStation 5: "It is not a pre-rendered movie made for the trailer but rather real-time rendered footage, running at 60 frames per second," Bandai Namco exec Katsuhiro Harada said on the PlayStation Blog.

UPDATE: The LinkedIn profile has been updated with a new figure: Skyrim is now said to have made $650 million in 30 days instead of $1 billion. "Generated $650M in the first 30 days- significantly outperforming forecasts," the listing now reads.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim reportedly made $1 billion in revenues in its first 30 days on the market, according to information connected to a Bethesda marketing manager.

According to info spotted by numbers researcher Timur222 on Twitter, Skyrim could've made $1 billion in revenues in just one month of sales. The data comes by way of a LinkedIn profile for Alex Price, who served as the European brand and marketing manager for Bethesda from 2010 - 2013. Price mentions that Skyrim had "generated $1 billion in the first 30 days," which exceeded Bethesda's internal forecasts by 35%; if accurate, the publisher expected to make $650 million in revenues from Skyrim.

Nintendo has officially confirmed the name of the new Breath of the Wild sequel alongside a release date for the anticipated game.

After years of development and delays, BOTW 2 is almost ready. The Legend of Zelda: The Tears of the Kingdom will launch on May 12, 2023 exclusively on the Nintendo Switch family of consoles.

The news was part of the latest Nintendo Direct showcase that included a brief teaser trailer. There wasn't a whole lot of new info but previous coverage gives a better idea of what to expect from the game. Tears of the Kingdom will take Link to the skies of Hyrule with tons of above-the-clouds exploration that also connects to the mainland, complete with what appears to be an enchanted floating stone glider for transportation.

The old-school N64 classic GoldenEye 007 is coming back with some modern upgrades.

One of the most pivotal console shooters of all time is returning after 25 years, complete with 4K resolution support and more. Today Microsoft announced that Rare's beloved GoldenEye 007 FPS is coming to Xbox Game Pass soon with a massive boost to in-game visuals. GoldenEye's impending Xbox release will support 4K resolution--a heavy upgrade over the game's original 320x237 resolution on the Nintendo 64--complete with 16:9 aspect ratio support, better frame rates, and achievements.

Multiplayer is also included, but the Xbox version only has split-screen local MP. Online multiplayer is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch Online version. What's interesting is the Switch version is actually the native N64 game with the added bonus of online multiplayer (an active NSO subscription is required to access the game and play it online, though).

Pierre Hintze helped salvage The Master Chief Collection and turn it into one of the best games on the market. Now he's leading 343 Industries.

Yesterday 343 Industries founder Bonnie Ross announced she was leaving the studio after 15 years of Halo franchise expansion. Taking her place is Pierre Hintze, who is largely credited with helping course correct The Master Chief Collection and streamline the game's once-disastrous multiplayer. Now Hintze has taken the role as head of 343 Industries and aims to turn Halo Infinite around, too.

"Head of Production Pierre Hintze will become Studio Head effective immediately. The 343 team is hard at work shipping the Winter Update, the biggest Halo Infinite update since launch," Microsoft told Windows Central.

Splatoon 3 is now the fastest-selling video game in Japanese history, breaking records set by all other games in all previous console generations.

Splatoon 3 is set to be Nintendo's next mega-hit and has become an incredible sensation in domestic markets. Nintendo has announced that Splatoon 3 has sold an incredible 3.45 million copies in just 3 days' time. According to data compiled by Game Data Library on Twitter, Splatoon 3 has set a new launch sales record for Japan, beating the previous record of 2.68 million copies sold by Animal Crossing New Horizons at launch.

A quick bit of math reveals that Nintendo has made at least $206.965 million from Splatoon 3's sales in Japan alone (the game retails for $59.99 in both stores and on the eShop). Further investigation reveals that Splatoon 3 made neared the Nintendo Switch's entire third-party game sales revenues for Q1 FY23; Third-party games made up 24% of Nintendo Switch software sales revenues in Q1, or $289.34 million. Splatoon 3 also made up 22% of total first-party game sales revenues in Q1'23, or $931.49 million.

Sony announces September State of Play event that will kick off today, Sept. 13 at 6PM EST.

It's happening: After weeks of asking for updates, Sony finally answers fans and will deliver a new State of Play event today. The September State of Play will kick off at 6PM EST / 3PM PST on the official PlayStation Twitch and YouTube channels.

Much to the dismay of fans, the event won't be focused on God of War Ragnarok. Instead Sony will showcase new and upcoming games from its Japanese and worldwide partners across a spectrum of platforms including PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and the PlayStation VR 2 headset, which is coming in 2023. Sony confirms that 10 games will be shown during the event which is timed around the annual Tokyo Game Show in Japan.

Ubisoft confirms that it will start charging the new $69.99 base pricing for all future big AAA games on newer systems.

As games publishers liked Activision-Blizzard and Take-Two Interactive started pushing base $69.99 prices for their games way back in 2020, Ubisoft has been holding out on raising the MSRP of its games in a bid to sell more copies. The plan has worked; Assassin's Creed Valhalla made over $1 billion in consumer spending and generated the largest revenues in the entire series thanks in no small part to its free cross-gen upgrades and regular discounts.

Skull and Bones is the first of Ubisoft's games to get the price hike, but it won't be the last. The pirate game is exclusive to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S generation consoles which apparently justifies the cost. It seems like it's only a matter of time before all video games publishers start charging $69.99 for new-gen titles (right now SEGA and Capcom are still holding out, though).

Earlier today gamers noticed that Assassin's Creed Mirage storefronts had listed an Adults Only rating from the ESRB, but Ubisoft has now stepped in to offer clarification.

The Xbox store page for Assassin's Creed Mirage had previously listed the game with an Adults Only rating due to "real life gambling." This was a mistake. Ubisoft says that Mirage will not feature lootboxes or gambling of any kind (but did not clarify whether or not the game would have microtransactions).

"Following the announcement of Assassin's Creed Mirage, some store pages displayed the game for preorders with an Adults Only ESRB rating. While the game is still pending rating, we want to reassure players that no real gambling or lootboxes are present in the game,"Ubisoft said on Twitter.

Assassin's Creed has sold 200 million copies worldwide since launch, and here's how that stacks up against other franchises.

The Assassin's Creed franchise has grown considerably over 15 years with hundreds of millions of game sales. The series has amassed an impressive 200 million copies sold since the first Assassin's Creed launched in 2007, pushing the series past big hits like Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, and EA's titanic life simulator The Sims.

The series has grown in terms of sales and revenues; Assassin's Creed Valhalla made over $1 billion in consumer revenue as of February thanks to its cross-gen release, multitude of monetization points, expanded content, and engaging gameplay. Ubisoft is also releasing more Valhalla content to round out 2022, and then Mirage, the latest Assassin's Creed, is set to launch in 2023.

343 Industries founder Bonnie Ross is leaving the studio due to family medical issues.

After 15 years with the Halo franchise and founding the current stewards of the series, Bonnie Ross is leaving the studio that she helped create.

"While I had hoped to stay with Halo until we released the Winter Update, I am letting you know I will be leaving 343 and attending to a family medical issue," Ross announced on Twitter.

Ubisoft reveals tons of new details about its upcoming Assassin's Creed Mirage game that's coming in 2023.

Assassin's Creed Mirage is a true return to form. The game is a smaller experience--about the same size as AC Rogue--set in the more condensed city of Baghdad. Instead of featuring RPG elements that are meant to keep you playing for 100s of hours like Origins, Odyssey, or Valhalla, Mirage puts most of its emphasis on action and parkour and is more like the old classic AC games.

Mirage is more basic and it sounds all the better for it. Meant to be a stop-gap to fill in the empty space between Valhalla and the new Assassin's Creed Infinity platform, Mirage was originally a DLC that morphed into a full game. Gamers will play as Basim, the quickest and most agile assassin in the series, and take on challenging black box infiltration missions while also expanding the lore and exploring the exotic vibrancy of 9th century Baghdad.

Ubisoft officially confirms Assassin's Creed Infinity isn't a game, but a platform hub that will connect all future games in the series.

Ubisoft's most valuable Assassin's Creed project isn't actually a game. Assassin's Creed Infinity is the next big thing in the franchise, and as we guessed many moons ago, Infinity is a kind of games launcher that will host new games and content. Think of it like a new Ubisoft Connect launcher exclusively for Assassin's Creed games--and more importantly, one that can appear on consoles. I've coined the term games-as-a-platform to describe this trend, and this is something 343 Industries aspires to do with Halo Infinite.

"Infinity is not a game per se, it's going to the single entry point for our fans into the Assassin's Creed franchise into the future," said Ubisoft's Marc-Alexis Cote. "Infinity is going to be a hub that will unite all our different experiences and our players together in meaningful ways."

Activision's new Call of Duty Warzone Mobile will support as many players as the base game and may even feature full cross-progression with the current console and PC battle royale.

Warzone Mobile looks to be every bit as big as the current BR mega-hit. According to a metadata description listed on the Call of Duty Warzone Mobile site, the free-to-play smartphone version will sport a massive 120 players and have shared progression systems. This description has been modified and altered but here's the original metadata:

"Pre-register for Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile for a chance to unlock rewards at launch. The next generation of mobile battle royale is here, featuring authentic COD gameplay, shared progression, and up to 120 player count matches on mobile!" the pre-altered site metadata reads, as per links archived on the Wayback Machine.

Yet another one of Disney's classic SEGA Genesis games is getting remastered.

Disney is bringing back the darkly enchanting Gargoyles franchise in gaming form with an incoming remaster of the retro Gargoyles game from the SEGA Genesis era. The 1990s franchise was among the most interesting series on the Disney Afternoon block of programming--if you grew up in the 90s, odds are you tuned in to shows like Darkwing Duck, Tales Spin, Duck Tales, and Gargoyles after school.

The original Gargoyles game was launched in 1995 during the franchise's heyday to much acclaim from gamers and reviewers alike, providing a stylish and enjoyable platformer with engaging combat. It was developed by Disney's in-house game development studio (which has since been abandoned), and the remaster will be developed by Empty Clip Studios, a group of indie developers who are well-versed with retro remasters and re-releases.