Gaming - Page 368

New gameplay footage strongly indicates that Sonic Frontiers could be SEGA's next breakout hit.

SEGA has something special with its new Sonic game. Dubbed Sonic Frontiers, the game looks to be for Sonic what Breath of the Wild is for Zelda. It's a highly ambitious and surprisingly chaotic open-world game where Sonic speeds, slides, and battles in style.

The recent gameplay teaser was indeed brief, but had enough content to hint at a project that's been in development for many years and one that could be the Sonic dev team's magnum opus. It's likely Sonic Frontiers will lead the charge in SEGA's new sales targets for the current fiscal year.

Despite being a relatively niche market, Sony is making substantial investment into its next-gen PlayStation VR 2 platform.

VR isn't a big market compared to consoles, but Sony is still spending big on its new PS5-powered VR headset. In a recent business meeting, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan says the company has put lots of effort into securing a wide variety of PSVR 2 games and content to help attract PS5 owners. Sony plans to release over 20 big PSVR2 games when the HMD launches.

"Relating to investment into PSVR2, we clearly will tailor the amount of spend to the point in the lifecycle that the PSVR2 finds itself. Right now there is a considerable amount of money that has been spent on partnerships with indie and third-party developers to secure a considerable pipeline of attractive virtual reality content at the launch of PlayStation VR 2," Ryan said.

Ubisoft has officially announced a 60FPS update for Assassin's Creed Origins on next-gen consoles.

The rumors were right: Assassin's Creed Origins is getting a big frame rate jump on consoles. The update will boost Origins to 60FPS on next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles starting June 2, Ubisoft has confirmed.

Fans have been clamoring for an Origins FPS boost update for a while now, and since Ubisoft won't release a mainline Assassin's Creed game in 2022, now is the perfect time to revitalize one of its older and most impressive games in the series. It also helps that Origins is monetized through microtransactions, and that the game has been added to Xbox Game Pass this week.

Sony expects its direct-to-consumer PlayStation Direct business to triple by 2023, and this growth could squeeze retailers like GameStop.

Sony is cutting out the middleman with its relatively new PlayStation Direct direct-to-consumer (DTC) business. The idea is for Sony to distribute and sell games, console hardware, accessories, and merchandise on its wholly-owned storefront and while keeping all sales (and paying all costs). The model has seen moderate success growing from $228 million in FY20 to $458 million in FY21 due to PS5 sales.

PlayStation Direct is expected to really take off in FY22 (ending March 2023). Sony expects its DTC business to triple to $1.5 billion during the year as it expands to more European territories during the fiscal year. This move could further erode Gamestop's $6 billion games retail business (Gamestop is responding with digital commerce such as its new NFT marketplace).

Sony plans to release 3 live games from now until March 2023, and we may know what these titles are.

Sony is doubling-down on live games as part of its new PlayStation business model revamp. The company plans to release 12 live games by March 2025, and 3 of these games will launch during this fiscal year. From now until March 2023, Sony wants to release 3 live service titles onto the market.

Clues may indicate what to expect from the slate of unannounced titles. In a recent Q&A session, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan says Destiny is not one of these titles. "Destiny is not included in the 3 games slated for FY22. The two other ones are yet to be announced," he said.

Sony is shipping thousands of PlayStation hardware devkits overseas to the United States.

A bit ago we reported that Sony had shipped mystery PlayStation console prototypes over to the United Kingdom. Now the company is doing the same with its console development kits.

According to international shipping ledgers, Sony has shipped thousands of PlayStation hardware devkits overseas from Japan to Los Angeles and Oakland, California. From January to April, Sony Japan has sent out over 57,000lbs of devkit freight. Assuming the devkits weigh the same as a normal PS5, or 8.5lbs, Sony may have shipped as many as 2,867 PS5 devkits overseas.

Diablo Immortal will not launch in Belgium and The Netherlands due to strict anti-lootbox regulations, Tweakers has reported.

Blizzard's new free-to-play Diablo Immortal game will not launch in regions like Belgium and The Netherlands due to ongoing restrictions in microtransaction-driven games in those regions. Back in 2018, Belgium banned randomized lootboxes and in 2020, Dutch courts sued EA over their in-game lootboxes. The ruling was eventually overturned in 2022, but publishers like Activision-Blizzard don't want to take any chances.

That's why Diablo Immortal will simply skip Belgium and The Netherlands. Blizzard's decision to not launch Diablo Immortal in these regions is "related to the current operating conditions for games in those countries," a representative told Tweakers.

Sony is confident its new PlayStation platform will surpass current market growth trends thanks to its wealth of gaming content, services, and hardware.

No longer restricted by the console market, PlayStation is expected to grow considerably over the next few years. In a big phase-change, Sony is bringing first-party games and experiences to mobile and PC. It's also investing heavily into live service games.

Based on current industry trends, Sony expects these bets to pay off. The level of diversification across all segments--premium PS5 games, new PSVR2 hardware, digital software, microtransactions, and services--has armed Sony with confidence that it could beat the current compound annual growth rate trends of the games industry and surpass current revenue forecast trends.

PlayStation boss Jim Ryan explains why the day one Game Pass business model is not a good fit for Sony.

In a recent PlayStation investor briefing, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan outlined the next few years of PlayStation's new business models. Soon PlayStation will follow Xbox and branch far outside of traditional consoles by expanding onto mobile and PC. It's also revolutionizing its PlayStation Plus subscription service by adding two new value-oriented tiers--PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium--with access to 740 games across six console gens. Despite all these changes, one thing will remain the same: Premium game releases won't come to PS Plus day one.

In a recent Q&A session during the briefing, Jim Ryan game some reasoning why PlayStation won't embrace the day-and-date release model used by Xbox Game Pass. In short: It all comes down to how Sony makes it money. Day one releases would eat into game sales that Sony depends on to re-invest into its business.

In a surprise release, we have the very first PS5 emulator released with the announcement of Kyty from developer InoriRus.

But in disappointment, you're not going to be rocking 4K 60FPS with ray tracing on your PC running PlayStation 5 games, at least not yet. Kyty doesn't have any support for... well... graphics in any PS5 games. Oh, and there's no audio input or output, MP4 video support, network of any kind, or multi-user support.

Kyto 0.1.0 is described as the "PS4/PS5 emulator" for Windows x64 and is in "early stages of development", with the team telling us to "consider this a PS4 emulator more than anything else". But this is "officially" the "first" release of a PS5 emulator, that can "run some simple games" for the PS4.

AYANEO has announced its new AIR, AIR PRO, and AIR Plus gaming handhelds today... versus the single new handheld, most were expecting. All of them have AMD's new Mendocino APU, and more. Let's do it:

The new AYANEO AIR Plus handheld starts at just $289, making it cheaper than Valve's own Steam Deck, making good use of the new AMD Mendocino APU. The new AYANEO AIR Plus is a new handheld gaming PC that rocks the new AMD Mendocino APU made on the 6nm process node by TSMC, with a 6-inch 1080p display with support for both Windows or the Linux-based AYANEO OS -- or SteamOS.

AYANEO is pricing its new AYANEO AIR Plus at just $289, which will get it a lot of attention... better yet, there's a launch promotion that drops that price down to $199 which is damn incredible. We don't know what you have to do to get that $199 price, but you do need to be a member of the AYA Community.

AYN's new Loki handheld console is in the making right now, as a successor to the Odin handheld console which was based on an ARM processor supporting Android and Windows for ARM.

The new AYN Loki handheld reportedly has the option of either an Intel or AMD processor, with an Intel Alder Lake-U CPU or AMD Ryzen 6600U. AYN announced "The Most Affordable Windows Handhelds Ever Created" as we have more than one console: five in fact.

It all starts with the Loki Mini at $299, packing the Intel Alder Lake-U + 64GB while the AMD-powered Ryzen 6600U processor + 64GB starts at $499. From there, you've got the same CPU, but 256GB storage for $599, 512GB for $699, while there's the Loki Max packing an upgraded 6800U + 512GB offered for $799.

PlayStation boss Jim Ryan admits that neither Sony or any major competitor has a complete vision of the metaverse, says the new fledgling market will not directly replace traditional gaming.

Following AR/VR, cloud, live games, and the controversial blockchain/NFT market, the metaverse is gaming's latest craze. Sony wants to help further the new nascent market by incorporating its IPs, platforms, and content into a more centralized framework, but these plans are decidedly foggy. In a recent business presentation, SIE CEO Jim Ryan says that a sizable portion of gamers will simply avoid the metaverse and enjoy games as they always have.

"Nobody knows exactly what the metaverse will look like at some point in the future. I do not believe that whatever form that it will take will be directly substitutional for existing ways in which people play games," Ryan said during a Q&A session.

Sony made over $2 billion in PlayStation Store revenues from five of gaming's most popular free-to-play games.

Sony's latest business presentation shows significant growth in live service earnings. As gaming's largest platform holder, Sony generates billions every year from add-on content/microtransactions (over $7 billion in FY21, to be more exact). Third-party companies like Epic, Activision, and EA are making billions of dollars every year from F2P live games--now Sony wants in on the action, and is developing a fleet of live games to hit the market.

The presentation also shows how much some of these F2P games make on PS4. According to the slides, five major free-to-play games made up 25% of total PS Store spending on the PS4: Fortnite, Genshin Impact, Warzone, Apex Legends, and Rocket League. We know that the PS4 made up 65% of total PS Store revenues, and that add-on + digital software earnings for FY21 total about $8 billion. So a quick bit of match shows that these five live games made $2.058 billion in PS Store spending.

Star Wars remaster gurus Aspyr have announced KOTOR II is coming to Nintendo Switch, complete with cut content.

Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords will soon get its first feature-complete version. The game is re-releasing on Nintendo Switch for a very affordable $15, Lucasfilm and Aspyr have announced. Apart from the beloved RPG mechanics and fantastic story arc, the biggest selling point of this particular KOTOR II re-release is that the missing cut content will be restored and added into the game as a post-release update.

KOTOR II was a well-liked, but very controversial game because it largely felt unfinished, and for good reason: A portion of the game was actually missing and left on the cutting room floor. Reports indicate LucasArts pressured Obsidian to release KOTOR II before it was completed, which let to a sizable portion of content being cut from the final release. The content is still included in the game's source files.

Respawn confirms that its new Star Wars action-adventure game will support real-time raytracing and other high-end optimizations on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles.

Yesterday Respawn and EA announced Jedi: Survivor, the sequel to 2019's Jedi: Fallen Order. Set 5 years after the original game, Jedi Cal Kestis is on a desperate mission for hope while being hunted by the ruthless Empire. Apart from a gripping, "complex and mature" story, Respawn is building the game from the ground up for PS5 and Xbox Series systems.

The devs are thrilled about the new power limits and features offered by the consoles. In a recent interview with StarWars.com, Jedi: Survivor game director Stig Asmussen confirms the project will harness each system's power boost in various ways including real-time raytracing.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is set to release in 2023 and will continue Cal Kestis' journey, EA, Respawn Entertainment, and Lucasfilm Games today announced.

VentureBeat's Jeff Grubb was right: Respawn's new Star Wars game is indeed called Jedi: Survivor, and it takes place 5 years after Jedi: Fallen Order (which puts it in the Obi-Wan series timeline). The sequel stars Cal Kestis and is described by Cameron Monaghan, who plays, Kestis, as a "complex, mature, and exciting progression for an audacious and ambitious game."

EA and Respawn are developing the game exclusively for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles--a PS4 and Xbox One version won't be available--as well as PC. The next-gen exclusivity will enable a "deeper, more expansive Star Wars experience." The team also promises new and innovative combat mechanics that push the original game's lightsaber action to a whole new level.

Online platform and gaming veteran Jerry Hook is leaving Microsoft after 18 years of industry-defining work.

Xbox LIVE storefront creator and Halo Infinite head of design Jerry Hook is leaving 343 Industries and Microsoft after nearly two decades of online services creation, the developer has announced. Hook has spent 18 years total with Microsoft's games division, helping establish the Xbox LIVE marketplace way back in the Xbox 360 days and being a part of the service for many more years.

Hook then moved to become an executive producer on various Halo releases, then jumped on to Destiny where he helped create the Eververse digital monetization storefront while also formulating the game's live team. Following a 3-year run with Bungie, Hook returned to Microsoft to serve three principal roles on Halo Infinite's development: first as online design director, then live director, and finally head of design from 2019 - present.

SEGA will reveal a new game during a special Japanese live stream on June 3, 2022, the company has announced.

A new SEGA title will be announced next Friday live on YouTube and Nico Nico. Company executive manager Hiroyuki Miyazaki and creative director Yosuke Okunari will showcase the new game, which could either be a new mainline title or a remaster/collection similar to Sonic Origins.

SEGA expects FY23 to be a massive year for both game sales and game releases with plans to nearly double both sales and releases throughout this fiscal year. It plans to release 13 new titles and expects to make 18 million sales throughout FY23 including new games and remaster sales, compared to 7 new game titles and 10 million total sales in FY22. This year's lineup includes announced games like Sonic Frontiers, Sonic Origins, and Soul Hackers 2.

Sony expects to make $300 million from first-party PlayStation games on PC this year, the company has announced.

PlayStation consoles are no longer the exclusive venue for Sony's first-party games. Sony is making a big effort to expand onto PC, starting with Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, and the more recent God of War. Sony has had middling success with its PC ports but earnings from the platform are expected to spike by 275% across the next year.

A recent PlayStation presentation shows that Sony will recognize $300 million in PC game revenues throughout FY22. It's unclear whether or not Destiny 2 is included in this amount, but it also suggests Sony could release multiple new first-party PS4 and/or PS5 games onto Steam this year.