Gaming - Page 369

Sony has officially formed a new PlayStation division that will exclusively focus on mobile games.

Today Sony announced its new PlayStation Studios Mobile Division, a segment that will be devoted to releasing--you guessed it--mobile games based on big PlayStation franchises. The new division will include Sony's latest studio acquisition Savage Game Studios, who is working on an "unannounced AAA live service action game." It's worth noting that Savage had received funding in 2021 for a more casual-based mobile shooter game.

PlayStation Worldwide Studios boss Hermen Hulst promises that mobile games will be additive to Sony's overall gaming focus. That's the message that Sony has relayed to investors, too: In a 2022 presentation, Sony said it plans to spark "significant growth of PC and mobile within our portfolio," with mobile accounting for roughly 10% of game releases in FY22. By 2025, Sony expects mobile to make up 20% of its game releases.

Sony has purchased yet another game studio, and this time it's mobile game studio Savage Game Studios.

Sony's latest acquisition for PlayStation is solely focused on mobile games. SIE has just bought out Savage Game Studios, a company based in Berlin, Germany and Helsinki, Finland. PlayStation Worldwide Studios president Herman Hulst says Savage is working on an "unannounced AAA live service action mobile game". Savage Games' CEO Michail Katkoff is the founder of Deconstructor of Fun, a well-known resource that examines the business of free-to-play games.

Savage Game Studios raised $4.4 million in seed funding in 2021 for a competitive shooter. It's possible that Savage is adapting its idea for this shooter around a PlayStation IP, maybe a Killzone free-to-play game.

Many of Valve's products have gone the way of the dodo, but the Steam Deck is different...and a new model might be in development right now.

Valve has confirmed it will continue making new Steam Deck hardware and supporting its existing models with software updates and QoL adjustments. In fact, Valve outright says the Steam Deck is "multi-generational," which aligns with previous assertions of new Steam Deck successors.

The info was spotted in a new digital Steam Deck information booklet that goes over the many functionalities and features of the hardware. The last page re-affirms what Valve has pretty much said a few times before--the Steam Deck isn't going anywhere.

What happened to System Shock 3? Is the game still in development? That ball is in Tencent's court now.

Back in May 2020, we reported that Tencent had saved System Shock 3's development. OtherSide Entertainment, who was developing the game, said at the time that the Chinese gaming giant "will be taking the System Shock franchise forward." Now two years later we have official confirmation that Tencent actually acquired the rights to System Shock 3 alongside the sizable investment they made into the project itself.

"When we originally acquired the rights to the franchise, we licensed the rights for the third game to Warren and Paul at Otherside. They then subsequently sold their rights to Tencent," Nightdive Studios CEO Stephen Kick told VideoGamesChronicle during a Gamescom 2022 interview.

Halo The Master Chief Collection may not get microtransactions after all, 343 Industries says.

A bit ago, 343i kicked off controversy by announcing they may add microtransaction purchases into Halo MCC (oddly enough, this was something I mentioned briefly in 2019). MCC's unlockable currency is being changed to Spartan Points, and all in-game items will be "purchased" by these points. Right now gamers can earn unlockables simply by playing the game, ranking up, earning EXP, and completing challenges. But 343i may add the ability to directly purchase these Spartan Points with real money.

Now in a recent Halo MCC blog update, 343 Industries briefly talks about Spartan Points. The devs say that no official decision has been made regarding microtransactions (but given Halo Infinite's dropping numbers I'd say it's a pretty much guaranteed bet).

Diablo 2 Resurrected's new Terror Zones endgame feature allows any item in the game to drop in affected areas.

Diablo 2 is getting its first new content update since the Pandemonium Event many years ago. They're called Terror Zones, and they essentially transform specific areas in the game to feature supercharged enemies that grant lots of extra EXP.

Every hour, a specific area in the game becomes a Terror Zone, meaning gamers now have a new endgame area to farm. The best thing about the Terror Zones is that they also instantly raise drop rates to Treasure Class 87, meaning any item in the game can drop in these Terror Zones.

In an era of post-merger uncertainty, Warner Bros. Games boss David Haddad reassures gamers and investors that the interactive division will be safeguarded from spin-offs and acquisitions.

Warner Bros. has finalized its merger with Discovery to form a mega media conglomerate. Following the merger, company CEO David Zaslav has been axing shows and content left and right. So what about gaming? Could WBD sell WB Games to Sony or Microsoft? Communication has been extremely sparse on this subject; AT&T barely mentioned WB Games in its earnings calls, and WB Discovery has also been coy on details on the division's fate. Now WB Games boss David Haddad has delivered some big assurances that nothing will happen to WB Games.

In a recent interview with Axios, Haddad essentially said WB Games was safe. And rightly so: the games division has done incredibly well in 2022 thanks to the roaring success of Multiversus, a new free-to-play brawler featuring various DC and WB characters, and the more recent LEGO Star Wars titles.

Xbox console availability will be scarce this holiday season, Microsoft's gaming boss Phil Spencer has said.

As Sony readies its massive 18 million PlayStation 5 console shipment, Microsoft may still be playing catch-up with hardware availability well into next year. Xbox Series X/S consoles are expected to be limited throughout the remainder of 2022, including the critical holiday season where the gaming industry sees its largest sales boom.

"I still think demand will outstrip supply for us this holiday," Spencer said in a recent interview with Bloomberg. "When we get into 2023 you'll start to see more that supply is catching up. You might see [an Xbox Series console] when you walk in the store."

Sony has raised the PlayStation 5's price in worldwide markets except for the United States, but Microsoft currently has no plans to raise Xbox console MSRP.

Sony is about to ship 18 million PS5s this year, and the company wants to maximize every console sale to help offset weaker global economics that led to a 50% slide in gaming operating income. To do this, Sony is hiking up the price for both its PS5 models in Asia, Central America, Australia, and Canada. Sony's home country of Japan sees the largest price jump with MSRP rising over 20% due to weaker yen-to-USD conversion rates.

Microsoft, on the other hand, says that Xbox Series X/S prices will remain as they are.

The PlayStation 5 price hike is the most unpopular decision that Sony has made since the PS3 era. As history repeats itself, Sony faces the very thing that held it back during the Gen 7 console cycle.

Sony has announced a PlayStation 5 price hike in all territories and countries outside of the United States. The reasons are stark and clear: Foreign currencies are falling against the dollar--the Euro dipped below the dollar recently, and is currently break-even; the yen is low, causing PlayStation operating income to drop by -50%--and inflation is forcing consumers to re-think their spending.

The pandemic earnings surge is long gone, and manufacturing costs have risen even as components become more readily available. Everything is getting more expensive and to stay profitable, Sony is passing those costs onto consumers in every market except its most important one: The United States.

Sources have told USA Today's GL;HF outlet that Amazon will buy Electronic Arts, and the news will be announced today. CNBC's David Faber indicates this report may not be true.

Today might be one for the record books. Reports from Swedish games out let GL;HF say Amazon is buying EA , the billion-dollar gaming powerhouse behind big franchises like Apex Legends, FIFA, and Madden. But other reporters like CNBC's David Faber have contested the rumors.

"I have talked to some people who would actually know if there's something going on and they say there's nothing going on," CNBC's David Faber said.

Skull and Bones has been detailed by Ubisoft during Gamescom 2022, where we learn the PC specifications which include support for all major AI upscaling technologies.

Ubisoft has announced that Skull and Bones will feature uncapped FPS on the PC, as well as HDR support, multi-monitor and ultra-wide monitor support, ray tracing (Ray-Traced Global Illumination or RTGI), and even an in-game benchmark which will help people like me test the hell out of the NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS upscaling support.

PC requirements have been announced, where if you want to run Skull and Bones at its max with 4K 60FPS+ then Ubisoft is recommending a pretty modest Intel Core i5-11600K or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X processor, just 16GB of RAM, and 65GB of SSD storage. For the GPU they're recommending the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB with DLSS enabled and set to "Balanced" or the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT 16GB with FSR enabled and set to "Balanced".

Destiny 2's new Lightfall expansion features some new fearsome foes, including a new Pyramid-enhanced Cabal and a brutal Darkness-infused mini-boss.

Destiny 2's legendary campaigns will come back with Lightfall, which is set to be the most explosive yet. The campaign introduces new enemies to conclude the Light vs Dark saga; Calus has joined the dreaded Witness as a disciple, bringing his newly upgraded Cabal forces to invade the untouched future-city of Neoluma. Calus' forces have been infused with new Pyramid tech to punish Guardians with on the field of battle.

Read Also: Destiny 2 Lightfall: New darkness strand subclass adds grappling hook

Connection and communication are vital for any live game's success. Now Destiny 2 is getting a feature that will help solidify both of these critical components.

Destiny 2 is getting a built-in LFG (looking for group) feature that will let players quickly find other users to tackle activities in the game. From campaign missions to strikes and complex raids, gamers will be able to make custom listings on the LFG board where other people can join. There's even tags like "just chilling" and "experienced Guardians" to give users an idea of what to expect from the session.

"It can be really challenging to get through the hard content solo, and making it easier to find people to play with is going to make it so much easier for people to get into Destiny," Bungie said. "It will make the game so much more social, and I really think it's going to make Destiny players feel like they're on one team."

Atomic Heart gets a new combat trailer that shows off impressive combat, creative bosses, and a unique world.

Atomic Heart is kind of a rare breed. Developed by Russian studio Mundfish, the game is an eclectic mix of Fallout, BioShock, Dead Island, and even Call of Duty elements. It's like someone put all of these franchise into a blender and injected some off-the-wall carnage and explosive combat to deliver what looks to be one of the most fun games in the last few years.

The new combat trailer exposes a lot of the fun factor the game should offer, including awesome powers that can deliver destructive combos, tons of guns that unleash pure mayhem, and a rather enjoyable 1950s sci-fi style that both embodies the idealistic retro futurism and blends the harsh industrial hardness of the Soviet Union. Throw in some interesting enemies, hulking automaton bosses with the hammer-and-sickle stamped on them, and other strange robots and there's a unique recipe that could cook up something special.

Bungie is breaking barriers with Destiny 2 and hints at the future of the live game beyond the Light vs Dark saga.

Destiny 2's new Lightfall expansion is so different than what I was expecting. Rather than being a somber punctuation to a years'-long saga full of interstellar witchcraft, death and loss, and an intricately-weaved plotline, it's a bombastic and colorful explosion of mayhem. It looks, well, very fun...and it could hint at what's to come from Bungie.

One of the most interesting things about Lightfall is how Bungie coalesced a new civilization, destination, and city out of nothing. Destiny 2's Lightfall expansion will introduce Neoluma, a new capital city on Neptune that features a brand set of NPCs called Cloudstriders. Bungie says Neoluma was a "hidden city" that no one knew about before now, and that the Cloudstriders are an alternate form of humanity.

Microsoft wants to buy Activision for one reason above all else: Mobile gaming.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg TV's Emily Chang, Xbox's Phil Spencer outlined the rationale behind Microsoft's huge $68.7 billion buyout offer for Activision-Blizzard. The simple answer is mobile games first, and PC gaming second.

"When we were thinking about on the idea on what we are capable of today and where do we need to go...the biggest gaming platform on the planet is mobile phones. 1.5 billion people play on mobile phones and regretfully Microsoft is not a place where we have a native platform as far as gaming. Coming from console and PC we don't have a lot of creative capability that has built hit mobile games," Spencer.

Sony is increasing the PlayStation 5's price tag in key regions like Canada, Europe, China, Mexico, and Japan--basically everywhere except the United States.

Today Sony made one of its most unpopular decisions in gaming since the PS3 era. The gaming giant is raising the price of the PlayStation 5 to reflect market inflation across the globe. Sony is one of the many Japanese games companies that saw their earnings slide as consumers pared back game spending. PlayStation's operating income dropped by nearly 50% in converted yen-to-USD rates in the Q1 period.

To make up for this drop, and to maximize hardware earnings, Sony is raising the price of the base and digital PS5 systems. The price hike, which is effective immediately except for Japan, comes months before Sony prepares the largest shipment of PlayStation 5 consoles in the history of the entire brand. Sony wants to ship 18 million PS5s during this fiscal year and plans to make Holiday 2022 the big season for PS5 availability.

While Microsoft has said in the past that it will continue offering Call of Duty products on competing platforms like PlayStation, Xbox boss Phil Spencer doesn't know if these billion-dollar games will stay on those platforms in perpetuity.

"So how far does this go? Does this mean Activision games, that Call of Duty that you'll be able to play on any platform in perpetuity?" Bloomberg's Emily Chang asked Spencer in a recent interview.

Spencer replied:

Xbox gaming boss Phil Spencer comments about the current chances of Microsoft's huge $68.7 billion buyout of Activision-Blizzard being approved by worldwide regulators.

Microsoft wants to buy Activision-Blizzard for nearly $70 billion and become the world's largest video games company on the planet. This union of billion-dollar services with billion-dollar game franchises (Call of Duty, Overwatch) is a big, big deal that could transform the industry and help usher in a new wave of cross-platform, service-based gaming.

Naturally this mega-deal has drawn scrutiny of worldwide regulators. Due to the sheer size of the deal, global governments are looking closely at both companies (as well as competitors like Sony) to determine possible monopolistic or anti-competitive practices. The FTC in America, CADE in Brazil, and other bodies are gathering information on Microsoft and Activision.