Gaming - Page 367

PlayStation console exclusives Spider-Man and Spider-Man Miles Morales are coming to PC in 2022, Sony today announced.

Insomniac's beloved Spider-Man duology is slinging across platforms to land on PC later this year. Marvel's Spider-Man will launch on Steam on August 12, 2022 whereas Spider-Man Miles Morales is coming Fall 2022. Both games will be optimized for PC with upgrades and new features like raytraced reflections, mouse and keyboard controls, a multitude of graphics and rendering settings, and more.

The newly-acquired Nixxes is working with Insomniac to bring both games to PC complete with all the content available on PlayStation consoles--suits, post-release DLC, updates, the works. Nixxes founder Jurjen Katsman says the games will deliver the "best possible PC experience that takes advantage of all the exciting possibilities the PC platform has to offer."

Final Fantasy XVI will not release in 2022 after all, and is now launching Summer 2023 on PlayStation 5.

Sony's latest State of Play event ended with a big explosive reveal of Final Fantasy XVI's combat and gameplay, while also confirming a Summer 2023 release timeline for the game. Combat looks to be a mix of Final Fantasy XV's action-based chaos mixed with a UI lifted out of the high-tech Final Fantasy 13, complete with 1v1 style mechanics and huge hulking summon battles.

Game director Yoshi-P confirms Final Fantasy XVI has entered the "final leg of development" and is currently playable from start to finish, but the team needs more time to optimize and there is still a "mountain of challenges" for polishing. "With the power of the PlayStation 5 behind us, we're looking to take you on a seamless, story-driven, white-knuckle ride that will rival even the most thrilling roller-coaster. So buckle up, the wait is almost over!"

Diablo Immortal is out now on PC...and it's not really something that should exist on the platform.

Today Blizzard released the beta version of Diablo Immortal on PC. The game has a solid place on mobile as a dungeon-delving action RPG looter, but on PC it's incredibly out of place. For one, Immortal's PC version is just the mobile port with PC controls. Two, and the biggest point of all, the game simply doesn't fit on PC. There's no reason for it to exist on this platform except as an extension of Blizzard's incredibly robust monetization options and to serve as a stopgap between Diablo III and Diablo IV (which could be out next year anyway).

Playing Diablo Immortal on PC is a jarring experience. The mechanics are familiar--hack-and-slash enemies, use skills, and pick up tons of loot. It's just Blizzard has already done this, and much, much better with Diablo III. Immortal is an obsolete game at launch whose only real innovations are an intensely layered, mobile-esque grind with lots of opportunities to spend money. Immortal is a pared back and heavily consolidated version of Diablo III that looks and plays like a mobile game, not a streamlined, PC-optimized release. The PC version is clearly an afterthought of the mobile version, and since it's on Battle.net, Blizzard gets to keep any and all revenues generated from in-game purchases.

Valve has delayed the Steam Deck's official docking station due to supply issues, the company has announced.

Following a delay of the Steam Deck itself, COVID-19 lockdowns have disrupted supply and manufacturing of the handheld PC's dock accessory.

"Due to parts shortages and COVID closures at our manufacturing facilities, the official Steam Deck Docking Station is delayed. We're working on improving the situation and will share more info when we have it. This has no effect on production schedule and reservation windows for Steam Decks (different parts, different factories)," Valve said.

Official gameplay footage for Modern Warfare 2 will be revealed on June 8 at 10AM PST / 1PM EST, Activision and Infinity Ward have announced.

Infinity Ward just dropped a live-action teaser for Modern Warfare 2, showing what looks to be a confirmation of a campaign based around conflict with South American cartels (the foothills and dusty deserts seem to be a big indication). The footage was brief, but it did give us a better look at Task Force 141, which now includes:

Twelve studios including Infinity Ward are working on the game, and Activision has confirmed Modern Warfare 2 will launch with a new version of Warzone that could completely redefine expectations for the battle royale shooter.

One of the best deals in gaming is back! New Xbox Game Pass subscribers can get an entire quarter of access for very, very cheap.

The much-talked about Game Pass deal has returned. You know the one that everyone talked about for many months? Microsoft is currently offering a promo for 3 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for just $1. This deal is exclusive to new subscribers, so if you've ever had Game Pass Ultimate before you won't qualify.

Microsoft is fine with offering such a steep -93% discount because they're so confident that you'll keep your subscription active following the 3 months. After all, Game Pass is already one of the best deals in gaming with over 400 high-profile games including must-play Bethesda and other first-party hits, not to mention a rotating lineup of titles that seems to only get better with time (this month, for example, Game Pass is adding a 60FPS version of Assassin's Creed Origins for Series X/S consoles). Check out a full list of Xbox Game Pass games here.

GTA parent company Take-Two Interactive has no intentions of "turning its business upside down" to release big games day and date on services like Game Pass.

The Xbox Game Pass model works well for Microsoft, but to be fair, the company is a service-first billion-dollar tech titan that can weather losses from missing out on game sales. Revenue-driven companies like Take-Two Interactive are totally different. TTWO depends on sales off its tentpole franchises like Grand Theft Auto, which routinely makes up 25-30% of its quarterly revenues, as well as NBA 2K. The GTA franchisehas made $7.5 billion since 2013, and GTA V has sold over 165 million copies--these are huge metrics that may be compromised with day one subscription launches.

In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick discusses the simple economics behind avoiding day-one subscription releases. Zelnick emphasizes the business strategy just isn't feasible, and big games like GTA 6 won't ever be released on Game Pass at launch. Stadia, on the other hand, doesn't count because it's a distribution service and requires consumers to actually buy the games upfront.

A YouTuber has been smacked by the long hand of Nintendo as the legendary company has dished out more than 500+ copyright claims.

For those that are unaware of Nintendo's history with copyright claims, the company has got a notoriously long history of refusing to let creators use any of Nintendo-patented music. At one stage, the company was issuing copyright claims to creators that were publishing YouTube videos that displayed gameplay from a Nintendo game. However, Nintendo has become somewhat relaxed on that front now.

Now, YouTuber DeoxysPrime took to Twitter to announce that his YouTube channel, which has 165,000 followers, has been hit with more than 500 copyright infringement claims over the last week. The YouTuber wrote in a Twitter thread that they will be removing all Nintendo music from the channel, adding that "it's pretty clear they don't want their music on YouTube".

Bethesda is still working on Fallout 5, but now we have "ENFANT TERRIBLE" teasing a new Fallout 5 fan concept trailer based on Unreal Engine 5, and it looks fantastic... check it out:

The modder explains: "We can't wait for a new Fallout! Take a look at this GREAT footage from different Unreal Engine 5 reels and projects and imagine how the next Fallout 5 or Fallout 4 sequel might possibly look like. Maya, Substance 3D Painter, Redshift, Blender, Cinema 4D, Unigine, 3DS Max, Photoshop, Quixel Mixer, Quixel Megascans, Marvelous Designer, Character Creator, Lumen, Nanite, World Creator, Zbrush, Rokoko Smartsuit 2, Quixel Suite, 3D Substance Designer and VFX were also used".

We don't know about Fallout 5, nothing at all really... as Bethesda Softworks has been a mess for a while now. The developer is also working on Starfield, which has been delayed through to 2023, as well as Fallout 5 that is in development right now.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will release on November 18, 2022 exclusively on the Nintendo Switch, both Nintendo and The Pokemon Company today announced.

Today the Pokemon Company dropped a new Pokemon Scarlet and Violet trailer that reveals a bunch of new in-game pocket monsters, including the endearing chonky pig Lechonk. The footage also shows more of the open-world exploration, gameplay, and the multiple biomes players will travel through like arctic tundra, dry mountainous cliffs, lush and verdant forests, and sprawling prairies.

Gamers get their first glimpse at the new professors--Sada and Turo--and a fresh look at what looks to be the best Pokemon graphics to date on the Nintendo Switch. Four-player co-operative play was also confirmed in the trailer, and we got a nice look at the interactivity of the world with a sneak feature, which can be used to stealthily capture more pokemon.

Despite ongoing controversy among fans, Take-Two is confident that Red Dead Online is among the largest interactive gaming worlds on the planet.

Red Dead Online, the live service component of Red Dead Redemption 2, is currently mired with controversy. Players have been asking Rockstar Games to deliver new meaningful online content for quite some time now. Faithful player went so far as to launch a Save Red Dead Online social media campaign.

While fans may be disappointed, Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two isn't. After all, Red Dead Online outperformed expectations last quarter and RDR2 sold 6 million copies during the year, bringing total game sales to 44 million. In fact, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick believes that Red Dead Online is one of the top premium digital online experiences currently available.

Sony and Gearbox have finally reached a deal to add PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 cross-play to Borderlands 3.

Years after launch, Borderlands 3 has finally received full cross-play between consoles and PC. Gamers are now free to play with each other across Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Steam/Epic Games Store, and Google's Stadia cloud streaming service. Sadly, cross-progression is still not available so if you move to another platform you'll still have to restart from scratch.

Borderlands 3 didn't have PlayStation cross-play at launch due to issues behind the scenes. Older 2021 reports indicate Sony is charging an extra fee for cross-play integration if players were spending more on non-Sony platforms.

Take-Two Interactive CEO and decades'-long industry veteran Strauss Zelnick cautions the industry about the metaverse, NFTs, and blockchain, affirms that entertainment comes first.

The interactive games industry has a golden rule: Entertainment and fun must come before monetization. If a game isn't fun, you can't properly monetize it. Digital live games with monetary-driven economies either follow this rule or fail. This tenant is especially true for the new era of blockchain-driven NFT games built in the "metaverse," which bank on digital real-estate for primary funding.

We've seen games like Peter Molyneux's Legacy make $57 million from NFT real estate, and other games like Decentraland and The Sandbox are doing the same. But if these projects want to having the staying power of titans like GTA Online, they need to entertain first and monetize second. Big execs like Take-Two CEO Strass Zelnick believe these investments, games, and projects won't end well...whereas the mainstay of the games industry--dedicated entertainment-driven titles--will stay on top. Zelnick should know; his decades-long tenure has overseen the rise of GTA becoming a billion-dollar giant of the industry.

The Tekken franchise has sold over 53 million units to date, Bandai Namco has announced.

The latest sales figures show that Tekken is the most popular traditional fighting game series of all time. Bandai Namco today confirmed Tekken 7 has pushed past 9 million sales, and a quick bit of math gives us a total figure for the entire series. The Tekken franchise has now sold over 53 million games across dozens of entries in the last 28 years.

These numbers indicate Tekken has actually sold 6 million more copies that Capcom's Street Fighter series, which is currently at 47 million units. It's worth noting that crossover brawler Super Smash Bros. has technically sold more copies than Tekken with over 69 million units sold to date, the bulk of which is from the Switch version.

SEGA just premiered the first-every gameplay footage of Sonic Frontiers, exposing a world full of mystery, ambition, and loneliness.

Sonic Frontiers is definitely the most ambitious Sonic game ever made. The new experience aims to deliver Sonic's very own Breath of the Wild moment, complete with an impressive-looking open world ripe for exploration and deep lore beats. The latest gameplay reveal showed what looks to be fun game full of capability and potential, but there's just one thing we couldn't shake while watching the footage: The sense of loneliness.

Perhaps what makes games like these the most powerful is a sense of being alone in a world that's full of potential. Breath of the Wild has a distinct sense of somber loneliness at parts, especially while exploring, but the game capitalizes on this alone time magic at every turn by creating a world with many secrets and things to do. There's so many different unique possibilities in Breath of the Wild that may or may not be present in Sonic Frontiers, but even if you are alone, the world makes you feel engaged at all times in a myriad of avenues, including characters, environments, or just exploration. You're alone but the world never makes you feel totally alone.

God of War on the PC is being updated, with v1.0.12 of the game now live on Steam... introducing support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 2.0 technology.

The new update for God of War makes it the third game to feature AMD FSR 2.0 upscaling technology so far, joining DEATHLOOP (the first) and then Farming Simulator 22 just recently. AMD says that it takes around 3 days to get FSR 2.0 working in a game, so things must be cranking at Team Red and game developers across the world getting FSR 2.0 into their games.

If you've got a newer Radeon RX series GPU and God of War on the PC, then make sure your game is updated on Steam and you can enable AMD FSR 2.0 right now. In the patch notes, the developer explains: "FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 has been implemented and is now available as a resolution-scaling option within the display settings menu".

The French government is pushing onwards with their fight to preserve the purity of the language, redefining rules on using English gaming terms.

Even in the year 2022 filled with gaming, game streamers, YouTubers, influencers, social media, content creators, pro-gamers, and so much more... the French government is banning most of them as they could act as a "barrier to understanding" for non-gamers.

Barrier to understanding for non-gamers... eh? I don't need to know French or English to think what the fresh hell is that... as Engadget reports "That's a solid point, as I can attest that many French non-gamers wouldn't have a clue what a term like "streaming" means"... while I beg to differ. It's 2022 -- I'm sure most people know what "streaming" means -- given how big streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime are in the country. But hey, French people must be a bit slow... they don't know what "streaming" or "professional gamer" mean.

Sony is confident its new three-tiered PlayStation Plus subscription will help boost paying users to a new record level.

PlayStation Plus subscribers will hit 50 million in Fiscal Year 2022--or at least that's what Sony is planning. The company believes the value proposition of its new PS Plus Essential, Extra, and Premium tiers will catalyze this significant growth. For reference, Sony hit 48 million PS Plus subscribers in Q3'21 and dropped to 47.4 million in Q4; Sony would have to accelerate adoption by 2.6 million users to hit this target. That kind of growth hasn't happened since 2019.

There's one secret key to this growth: PlayStation Now subscribers. Sony is phasing out PS Now subscriptions and will instead merge them into the new PS Plus Premium tier. That means all existing PS Now subscribers will be counted as PS Plus subscribers.

PlayStation boss Jim Ryan says that Sony is "not at all finished" with its acquisitions and buyouts.

The new era of consolidation sees gaming giants snapping up third-party publishers and devs; Microsoft is buying Activision-Blizzard for $68.7 billion; Take-Two spent $12.7 billion to merge with Zynga; EA has spent over $4 billion buying Playdemic, Glu Mobile, and Codemasters; and Sony is buying Bungie for $3.6 billion. So who's next? No one knows for sure, but Sony isn't done making buyouts.

In a recent PlayStation business presentation, SIE CEO Jim Ryan says that Sony will continue making inorganic acquisitions similar to its recent deal with Bungie in order to expand its games division.

Sony's new live service games could significantly raise PlayStation's annual revenues per user metrics and supercharge its digital business.

For years Sony has watched third-party giants like Activision, Take-Two, and EA made billions of dollars from live games. Now Sony finally wants in on the action, and is making big investments into live games. By 2025, Sony wants to have 12 live games on the market. This high-level expansion is expected to fuel long-term, recurring player spending and help boost its digital & add-on revenues--a segment that already makes more revenues than PlayStation hardware, software, and services.

In a recent business event, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan says that ARPUs, or annual revenues per user, could well surpass the PS5's current $174 ARPU if even only a fraction of Sony's new live service games are successful.