Gaming - Page 376

Sony has confirmed that PlayStation support will no longer advise or interact with consumers on Twitter starting August 1, making it harder to contact PS Support.

As per the official Ask PlayStation account, Sony's support teams will stop using Twitter's social media platform as a way to contact and connect with users experiencing troubles on PlayStation consoles and storefronts. PlayStation Support will no longer use Twitter's replies or DMs to inquire about or troubleshoot issues. Gamers will instead have to contact PlayStation Support directly...but that isn't so easy.

Speaking of contacting PlayStation Support, today's announcement links to a webpage that encourages users to only contact support as a last resort. "If you still need help, select contact us at the bottom of the page," Sony says, but the page has no contact us section. Furthermore, the official PS Support Home page has no direct contact section either, nor is there a phone number for PS Support.

While the Untied Kingdom still does not classify lootboxes as gambling, the government has issued a warning to video game companies in regards to lootbox access by children.

Back in 2019, the UK's Gambling Commission determined that looboxes did not constitute as gambling despite activating and instilling similar behavior patterns (lootboxes technically do not lead to material real-world monetary winnings, thus cannot be classified as gambling). Now in 2022, the UK's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) reiterates that lootboxes aren't gambling...but the government has nonetheless sent a warning to billion-dollar publishers like EA and Activision-Blizzard.

The warning is pretty clear: The UK government wants games companies to restrict minors and children from being able to buy lootboxes similar to how the Xbox platform requires parental approval to buy content from within a game. The government plans to establish a new group within the DCMS and co-ordinate closely with games companies/platform-holders, and will also conduct significant research in a Video Games Research Framework group.

Microsoft has complied with the Federal Trade Commission's request for more information regarding the Activision-Blizzard acquisition proposal, sources have told Seeking Alpha.

The biggest gaming buyout in history could close by next month; By August 17, Microsoft could officially become the new owner of Activision-Blizzard, one of the most powerful and profitable video game publishers on the planet. Federal Trade Commission regulators in the United States are currently evaluating key documents, information, and details about both Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard in order to assess whether or not the megaton deal would be fair to investors, consumers, and the overall video games market.

The acquisition's regulatory process appears to be going smoothly and swiftly. Months ago, Microsoft company president Brad Smith confirmed the FTC had issued a Second Request--a step in the regulatory approval process where the FTC collects information on games, earnings, and everything else from both companies--and that the deal was moving fairly quickly.

On the heels of major adaptations like Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings, Amazon is putting a lot of effort into making the new Fallout TV show look and feel authentic.

New set photos from Amazon's Fallout TV show reveal that everyone involved is apparently taking the adaptation very seriously. A few new shots from the Fallout show have appeared on the internet that depict the gritty, post-apocalyptic world--more specifically the iconic Super Duper Mart and two rust-bucket vehicles.

There's no shots of characters like protagonists, raiders, NCR operatives, 1950s robots or the hulking Brotherhood of Steel power armor, but so far the visuals are a great representation of what Fallout currently is and the original cRPG that it was back in the 1990s.

Warframe developer Digital Extremes has announced Soulframe, a captivating, mysterious, and exotic fantasy MMORPG.

Soulframe is a new free-to-play action "hybrid-MMORPG" with enchanting presentation. Digital Extremes is trading sci-fi with deep fantasy in a way that reminds me of FromSoftware's shift from Armored Core to Dark Souls or Elden Ring. There's certainly some mythical lore beats expressed throughout Soulframe's cinematic trailer, matching strange otherworldly technology with swords and sorcery, complete with a towering fox-wolf as a companion.

Digital Extremes has described Soulframe's world as a "mirror universe" to Warframe, and is directly inspired from the colorful and explosively creative fantasy worlds of the 1970s and 1980s including the stark brutality of sword-wielding enemies from likes of Ralph Bakshi all the way to the glowing gardens of Legend with Tom Cruise.

Programmer Reuben Ward is remaking the beloved old-school PS2 classic Simpsons Hit and Run in Unreal Engine 5.

What would a Simpsons Hit and Run remake look like on today's consoles? Probably something like the ambitious remake project that reubs is currently working on.

The coder is currently putting together an impressive recreation of Simpsons Hit and Run complete with modern Unreal Engine features and effects, including RTX lighting, revamped textures and shaders, and improved real-time physics effects. The result is absolutely glorious...but you won't ever get to play it. Ward has no plans to release the files for viewers or fans.

Ubisoft has announced its new free-to-play The Division mobile game and promised a polished, action-based experience.

A bit ago, Ubisoft confirmed it was working on various free-to-play games across mobile, PC, and console, including Ghost Recon Frontline, and two new games in The Division universe: Heartland, and the newly announced Resurgence. Ubisoft is opening up closed testing registrations (NDA protected) for The Division Resurgence and reveals new details about the game.

Resurgence is billed as delivering AAA gameplay in a free-to-play mobile form factor, which seems like an oxymoron...until you remember that full-priced AAA games typically ship with microtransactions anyway these days (especially games from Ubisoft). Resurgence aims to recreate the shoot-and-loot action from the original games complete with a galaxy of collectible and customizable gear, representing prime opportunities for microtransactions.

CD Projekt Group's stock and market capilization value has dropped by more than half since Cyberpunk 2077's release.

Cyberpunk 2077 was a transformational game for CD Projekt Group. The product shipped over 13 million copies at launch, more than double of The Witcher 3, and has now reached over 18 million sales. Cyberpunk 2077 was so successful that CD Projekt made $447 million in the quarter the game launched, which is more than any other full-year period in company history.

Despite success, Cyberpunk 2077 was riven by controversy with the game's poor performance on PS4 and Xbox One. This led to massive share value drops, triggering lawsuits and big spending on updates, patches, and fixes.

Elden Ring reigns supreme as the best-selling video game of 2022 in the United States and conquers June's top 10 sales charts.

Followed by a monumentally powerful launch, Elden Ring has become one of the most successful games Bandai Namco and FromSoftware have ever made, amassing 13.4 million sales in roughly four months (these figures exceeded the publisher's estimates by over 200%).

Now months after launch, the game is still doing incredibly well. According to the NPD Group, Elden Ring is the best-selling game in the United States year-to-date in 2022 and ranked #1 in June 2022's top-sellers. It's important to note that four Call of Duty games were on the top 10 list and history tells us Elden Ring will probably get dethroned once Modern Warfare II releases in October.

Electronic Arts is reportedly retiring BioWare Points in October 2022, and has now made all smaller add-on content in games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect free for PC gamers.

If you own legacy Dragon Age and Mass Effect games on Origin, you might want to boot the launcher back up to claim some free DLC. According to new reports, BioWare and EA are removing BioWare Points from the Origin storefront later this year. The content that required these points is now free, and larger DLC expansions are now exclusively bundled together for BioWare titles.

The free content includes smaller-scale DLC like miscellaneous bonus packs for alternate appearances, weapons, armors, and specific missions in Dragon Age Origins, Dragon Age II, and Mass Effect 2 & 3.

Fall Guys appears to be the fastest-growing free-to-play game on the market with a significant surge in players.

Weeks ago, Fall Guys went free-to-play and racked up some serious numbers. The party game actually grew faster than mega-hits like Call of Duty Warzone, Fortnite, and Apex Legends, all billion-dollar trendsetters that transformed the industry.

Mediatonic recently confirmed that Fall Guys had amassed 50 million players in just two weeks, growing faster than some of the most popular F2P games ever made. For reference, it took both Warzone and Apex Legends about 4 weeks to to hit 50 million players, and Fortnite hit the 45 million player mark after 16 weeks. It's worth mentioning games like Fortnite (2017), Apex (2019) and Warzone (2020) helped open the doors for Fall Guys' success and opened the door to this newer, instantly-accessible monetized consumer market.

Sony has told shareholders and investors that its multi-billion Bungie acquisition deal has been approved earlier than expected, and will be recorded as an expense in FY22.

Today Sony officially confirmed that its Bungie buyout deal has closed. Bungie is now part of PlayStation's first-party studios and will bring its live service expertise to help lead Sony into a new era of online live games.

Sony also filed a new 6-K SEC filing to alert investors of the acquisition. In the document, Sony says the deal closed for $3.7 billion and that the acquisition was approved quicker than expected. The deal was originally planned to close by December 2022, during Sony's Q3 period, but has instead been approved during Q2. Sony won't pay $3.7 billion for Bungie all at once, and the payments will be deferred over multiple years across different terms (for example, Sony is offering a $1.2 billion employee retention incentive).

Sony's $3.6 billion buyout of Bungie has completed, and the studio is now part of the first-party PlayStation studios brand.

It's official: Bungie is a first-party PlayStation studio. "The agreement to acquire Bungie has closed. So now we can officially say... welcome to the PlayStation family, Bungie!" Sony's PlayStation account said.

Bungie will be one of Sony's most important studios and will help lead PlayStation into a new era of live service games. Sony wants to ship 12 live games by 2025, and Bungie will be instrumental in helping plan these games out; Sony has said it wants to "fully integrate Bungie expertise in all SIE processes," however Bungie will retain full creative freedom in the games it developers and publishes.

Sony is a bit late to the party with its new PlayStation Stars loyalty initiative and is taking direct cues from Microsoft's gaming ecosystem.

Sony's new PlayStation Stars program is the digital equivalent of earning tickets at an arcade to trade in for prizes. This is something that has existed on Xbox some time with the robust Microsoft Rewards program, which has been masterfully integrated into Xbox LIVE and Game Pass in the form of a unique Quests system. The ethos is simple: "Earn points for what you already do on Xbox, then redeem your points on real rewards. Play more, get rewarded."

PlayStation Stars is pretty much the same. Gamers sign up, complete challenges or unlock in-game content (e.g. get a trophy, complete a mission, beat a game, etc) and earn Stars for a digital piggy bank. The Stars are a kind of non-value currency similar to the old Microsoft Points, and they can then be traded in for rewards like PlayStation Store funds and actual products.

If you miss the claustrophobic stress of Alien Isolation, you may want to pay attention to this new project.

A new Alien game is currently in development from VR developer Survios (The Walking Dead Onslaught, Westworld Awakening), the studio today announced. The new Alien title being developed in Unreal Engine 5 and targeting consoles, PC, and VR headsets, and will be singleplayer adventure centered around tension, terror, and action.

"Survios is embarking on a new collaboration with 20th Century Games to develop an intense single-player, action horror game set in the iconic Alien universe," the announcement reads.

Nintendo has purchased Dynamo Pictures, Inc, a CGI production company that helped with Kingsglaive Final Fantasy XV, the PIKMIN short films, and the new Ghost in the Shell TV show.

Nintendo has ambitious plans to start creating its own TV shows and films while bolstering the cinematic scenes featured in its games. The company today announced that it has purchased 100% of all remaining shares in Dynamo Pictures, a Japanese studio known for its animation, motion capture, and computer graphics.

In the past, Dynamo has worked on a multitude of projects but will now exclusively focus on Nintendo's mighty arsenal of franchises. "Upon closing of the acquisition, the company name Dynamo pictures is expected to be changed to Nintendo Pictures Co., Ltd. to focus on development of visual content utilizing Nintendo IP," Nintendo said in a press release.

EA's new Skate game will be free-to-play with microtransactions, developer Full Circle has confirmed in a recent stream.

Skate 4 (which is actually named Skate) won't be a premium game like its predecessors. Instead, EA is chasing the free-to-play model that has generated billions of dollars in revenues for the company. Skate is the latest franchise to get adapted for the lucrative F2P market, complete with cross-play and a years-long content roadmap.

"Yes, there will be microtransactions in the game. We knew that to support a never-ending, ever-evolving, free-to-play world of Skate, we'd have to look into different models for the game itself,"Full Circle general manager Dan McCulloch said in the stream.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder's Revenge has sold 1 million copies in a week, making it a big hit on the games market.

Tribute Games' and Dotemu's dedication has paid off big time: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shredder's Revenge is an official platinum hit with over 1,000,000 games sold on all platforms. The game is being hailed as a triumphant return of beat-em-up action and is one of the purest love letters to the original 1980s TMNT show that I've ever seen, complete with an incredibly faithful rendition of Konami's immortalized Turtles in Time arcade game.

Shredder's Revenge also sports 6-player carnage and has full cross-play, making it an ideal choice for modern TMNT action. What's even more impressive is that the game sold so many copies despite being on Xbox Game Pass.

Sony's new three-tiered PlayStation Plus subscription is mimicking one of the best parts of Xbox Game Pass.

Today Sony announced the new games rotating into PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium, and the lineup includes a day-and-date release of the anticipated feline future-punk game Stray on both PS4 and PS5. It's a big far cry from Microsoft's heavy-hitting day-one first-party promise, but it's definitely a step in the right direction for added value.

The big story here is how newer games are rotating into the service in the capacity of game downloads and ultimately sampling new content. The first-party Xbox Game Pass promise is great, but a lot of subscribers still move over to other games they wouldn't have played if they weren't offered on the service. PlayStation Plus is now sparking up discovery and visibility while offering up incremental, growing value.

SEGA's Genesis Mini console was the best micro-console on the market in terms of value and games offered. Now SEGA wants to step things up a notch with the SEGA Genesis Mini 2, a newer model that features more games including SEGA CD titles.

The SEGA Genesis Mini 2 is the Western version of SEGA's new Mega Drive Mini (only available in Japan). The Genesis Mini 2 comes with 50 games pre-loaded onto the console which spans both Genesis and SEGA CD eras. Confirmed SEGA CD titles include: Ninja Warriors, Sonic CD, Night Striker, Shining Force, Silpheed, and Mansion of Hidden Souls. SEGA has only confirmed 23 out of the 50 games that will be offered.

While the SEGA Genesis Mini 2 does come with a six-button gamepad, a potential drawback is that it only includes one controller. One added bonus is that existing Genesis Mini controllers are compatible with the Mini 2. The console is a bit more expensive as well; the Genesis Mini 2 launches on October 27, 2022 for a hefty $103 and is also exclusively available on Amazon.