Gaming - Page 380

Prompted by Epic Games' donation campaign, Fortnite players have raised a whopping $144 million for Ukrainian relief through VBuck purchases.

A bit ago, Epic announced that it would donate all Fortnite microtransaction proceeds made in a 3-week period to humanitarian groups to help war-torn Ukraine. Now the campaign has ended and gamers have helped generate a staggering $144 million in revenues and profits across all platforms.

It's worth noting that the donation sum includes 100% of Xbox and PC revenues, whereas the 30% platform holder feeds have been deducted from Fortnite earnings on PlayStation, Switch, and mobile. Our records show that Fortnite traditionally makes around $297 million in revenues per month on all platforms, and earnings have undoubtedly spiked thanks to this donation campaign.

Halo The Master Chief Collection's player counts have jumped considerably following yesterday's big update.

343i just released a substantial update for Halo: MCC and players are returning en masse to try out new content like Halo 2 custom browser games and Floodfight. According to Steam DB, Halo: MCC's players are up 88% month-to-month following the update. In fact, the legacy game is nearly as popular as Halo Infinite.

Direct 24-hour peak player comparisons show that Halo: MCC had 8.297 users compared to Halo Infinite's 8,408 peak. Granted that Halo Infinite has been content-starved for many weeks now and should bounce back in May with the release of Season 2 Lone Wolves, but for now the playerbase has dropped some 96% since the game's launch.

Halo 3 ODST's new Floodfight gametype is one of the best things to ever come to the Master Chief Collection.

Yesterday 343 released a new update for the Master Chief Collection with a fusillade of content, changes, and fixes. Some of these were pretty big: Halo 2 is now visible on the custom games browser, campaign cross-play was added for Halo 3 and ODST, and there's a few mod adjustments. The headlining new feature was Floodfight, a new firefight gametype that introduced Halo 3's flood to my favorite game mode of all time.

Being a Firefight purist and having beta tested Floodfight, I was extremely skeptical on the new mode. Floodfight not only adds flood to traditional ODST Firefight maps, but it also packs in Halo 3 weapons like the battle rifle, assault rifle, and even the energy sword. This changes the meta considerably...but for the better. I'm elated to report that Floodfight is incredibly fun. In fact, it's the most fun I've ever had in Firefight.

Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors discusses how his decentralized digital empire mitigates risk by sheer breadth of content.

Lots of coverage has broken out about how Embracer plans to buy up more studios and companies, but this is par for the course for the European giant. Embracer isn't just a name--it's the group's raison d'etre. Of course it will buy up more developers, labels, etc. To date, Embracer has made 71 acquisitions worth over $8 billion, and Wingefors has previously confirmed more acquisitions will happen throughout 2022-23 but this time Embracer will be "more selective than ever," the CEO says.

In a recent Financial Times article, Wingefors said something that perfectly outlines Embracer's game plan. The group isn't trying to create one hit, but instead a myriad of titles that will help subsidize development costs, drive revenues, and eventually turn profits.

Battlefield 2042's numbers are in a really bad place right on Steam and have dropped to their lowest point since launch.

Following significant controversy, lack of content, and tons of glitches, it seems PC gamers are moving on from Battlefield 2042. EA's latest online-only shooter has dipped below 1,000 players today on Steam--it's lowest since launch--but has somewhat stabilized in the rough 1,700 player mark.

It's worth noting that Battlefield 2042 has lost over 98% of its Steam players since launch; the game had 105,397 players upon release and currently has 1,733 players.

Epic Games raised $2 billion in its latest funding round, pushing its total valuation to tens of billions.

Sony and LEGO's parent company have just made a combined $2 billion investment into Epic Games to help propel the metaverse and fuel Unreal Engine 5. Following this significant finance injection, Epic Games now has a valuation of $31.5 billion--nearly double what it was worth two years ago. Epic Games said its valuation was roughly $17 billion back in 2020 (Epic was also worth $15 billion in 2018).

The latest multi-billion investment round reflects Epic's unique ambitions with two entertainment titans. Sony in particular has a vested interest in Epic's success because many of its digital entertainment operating units make use of Unreal Engine, which is used in production of games, films, and TV shows. Sony has been ramping up its PlayStation Productions segment to produce adaptations of key gaming IPs like Uncharted, with major TV shows based on The Last of Us and Twisted Metal currently in the works.

Sony has invested $1 billion into Epic Games in a significant move that will supercharge the company's multimedia endeavors.

Sony believes in Epic Games' vague-but-early plans for the metaverse. Today Sony announced that it has strategically invested a whopping $1 billion into Epic to help establish its nebulous metaverse and also deepen the two's synergistic relationship. Sony utilizes Epic's Unreal Engine 5 in its full breadth of entertainment content including games development and TV/film production, and the tech giant has now invested a total of $1.45 billion into Epic.

The investment comes nearly two years after the launch of the PlayStation 5, a console that Epic Games has readily praised. Unreal Engine 5 has been specially optimized for the PlayStation 5 and was the very first platform to show off the engine's capabilities via a breathtaking real-time gameplay tech demo.

The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience is probably the very best graphics available on any platform right now, and you can download it right now and play it on your rig.

But even with some of the fastest silicon on the planet, you're not going to be hitting 4K 60FPS easily, with even an Intel Core i9-12900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics card incapable of hitting 4K 60FPS. You're going to get around 40-50FPS average at 1440p to 4K on that type of hardware.

The download itself is around 93GB, but you can get that down to a much slimmer 17GB thanks to developer Victor Careil from Unreal Engine plugin maker VoxelPlugin. Not too damn bad at all, eh?

The new Witcher game isn't being developed in CD Projekt's proprietary RED Engine and will instead use Unreal Engine 5. Now the studio discusses the main reasons why.

A bit ago, CD Projekt announced two big things: A new Witcher game is coming, and CDPR is using Unreal Engine 5 to make the game.

On a surface level it's easy to see why Unreal is being used; the engine is flexible, easily deployable, and has been streamlined specifically for optimized workflows across PC, mobile, and consoles. It also features new technologies like Nanite, which allows devs to easily import high-quality images right into scenes, and impressive new lighting systems with Lumen.

It's official: Kingdom Hearts 4 is happening and the series just got a massive visual upgrade.

Square Enix today celebrated 20 years of Kingdom Hearts with a look at the past and the future of the series, including a big Kingdom Hearts 4 reveal. The game is set during the new Lost Master Arc storyline and shows a very high-def Sora waking up in the Quadratum, a modern-day city that looks like something out of an Unreal Engine 5 tech demo (in fact the entire trailer looks like an engine tech demo).

The footage showcases visuals and graphical fidelity never before seen in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, suggesting a next-gen exclusive release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Donald Duck and Goofy are also in the game, alongside an incredible-looking model of Strelitzia from Kingdom Hearts Union X. Square Enix didn't reveal many details in the trailer and there's no release date or window, but we do know that Tetsuya Nomura is attached to the project (Nomura is also helping with the new Final Fantasy VII Remake episodic series).

SEGA's new games could transform the Twitch Plays concept and push viewer-based interaction to a whole new level.

SEGA is currently at a turning point. The company is creating what it calls Super Games, which are big innovative live titles centered around online gaming, engagement, and interactivity. In a recent internal company interview, SEGA management says it is currently experimenting with new ways to allow viewers to "intervene in the game," not unlike Twitch Plays.

"In fact, efforts that could be part of Super Game have already started for titles that are already in operation. For example, in terms of watching the game mentioned earlier, it's a system that allows viewers to intervene in the game. We are experimenting with new experience possibilities to broaden the range of players," SEGA general manager Katsuya Hisai said.

SEGA is using advanced next-gen technologies to build its new Super Games including Unreal Engine 5, AI, and procedural FX tools like Houdini, company management has confirmed.

SEGA has big plans for the future of gaming. The company created a new term called Super Games to describe its ambitious idea; Super Games are described as massive online-driven inter-connected titles that engage players on all platforms all over the world. Phantasy Star Online 2 is a great example of a Super Game.

SEGA wants to have multiple Super Games on the market by 2030 and is investing over $800 million into this new plan while also converging all of its game development segments to work on the multi-game initiative.

A new report suggests that SEGA's Super Game lineup could use NFTs, but SEGA didn't actually say this is the case.

SEGA has an ambitious plan to release multiple billion-dollar live games onto the market. SEGA actually created a specific new genre called "Super Games" for its new titles. The so-called Super Games are defined as titles with widespread multi-platform releases that deliver $1 billion revenues similar to Phantasy Star Online, and will be deployed using cloud and online networks complete with live game business models. The company is investing over $800 million into its new Super Games, and wants to have multiple titles on the market by 2030.

A recent report suggested that SEGA's NFT plans could crossover into its Super Games initiative. The report cites a recent interview with SEGA executives concerning Super Games, but company leadership doesn't actually say that the new live games will incorporate NFTs.

Ubisoft is currently developing a new Ghost Recon game but its Quartz NFTs may not be part of the core gameplay experience.

Yesterday saw the end of Ghost Recon Breakpoint's new updates. Now sources tell Kotaku that Ubisoft is working on the next Ghost Recon game, and it looks like the controversial Quartz NFTs may not be included. Sources have also said that the company's Strategic Innovations Lab--the experimental technology division that oversees its Quartz NFTs, crypto, and blockchain gaming--have stayed out of the conversation following significant push-back from gamers.

The Ghost Recon game is codenamed OVER and was part of the massive NVIDIA GeForce server leak. The document reveals that Ubisoft Paris is developing the project, which has reportedly been in development for over a year.

Nanite is one of Unreal Engine 5's most powerful new features that can help game developers make their titles look better without meticulous work.

Epic just released Unreal Engine 5 with a host of new improvements, optimizations, and features to power next-gen games. UE5 emphasizes streamlined workflows in an effort to reduce friction and give developers tools to make games faster and more detailed than ever before. One of the headlining new features of UE5 is Nanite, a new micro-polygon geometry feature that allows devs to directly import ultra high-definition movie-quality assets into scenes without kit-bashing or having to bake down assets into low-poly models.

Epic Games has signed a long-term partnership with LEGO to help shape the early formative years of the "new internet."

Epic's vision of the nebulous metaverse is starting to take shape beyond Fortnite. The gaming giant is taking literal building blocks from LEGO to help build the foundation for its new web 3.0 infrastructure as part of a significant new multi-year agreement between Epic and LEGO.

Epic and LEGO promise to deliver a safe, kid-friendly digital experience for children of all ages to enjoy. The experience itself is never really defined, but expect some sort of cross-platform online game that probably includes VR, AR, consoles and PC in one cohesive package.

Activision has told employees that Call of Duty has moved away from an annualized franchise towards a live service business model.

As part of today's announcement that all Activision QA testers will become full-time employees with benefits and $20/hour salaries, company leadership tells employees that Call of Duty is shifting towards an "always-on" structure.

The news was relayed to Bloomberg via internal correspondence with Chief Operating Officer Josh Taub telling workers that the world's most popular FPS is moving away from annual releases and towards a live model.

In a major win for its contractor teams, Activision-Blizzard today announced that it will make all of its QA testers full-time employees.

Following months of walk-outs, protests, and pressure, Activision-Blizzard plans to enfold 1,110 quality assurance (QA) testers into its ranks. Activision says that all of its QA teams will become full-time employees with benefits and wages starting at $20/hour.

The move comes after employees and developers banded together to form A Better ABK, a coalition aimed at fair wages and better treatment of workers. A Better ABK has organized various walk-outs at the company and a separate group, Game Workers Alliance, has formed in an effort to unionize QA testers at Raven Software. Activision previously announced that it will not formally recognize the Game Workers Alliance union and today's move is a direct response to the demands made by the pro-union group.

Epic Games detailed and unleashed its next-gen Unreal Engine 5 during its State of Unreal 2022 event earlier this week, with game developers also teasing their new UE5-powered projects.

Gears developer The Coalition teased a rather beautiful Unreal Engine 5 demo running on Microsoft's next-gen Xbox Series X console. During the State of Unreal 2022 event the video was teased, but then Coalition Technical Director Kate Rayner provided more details during an interview with Xbox Wire.

Rayner said that Nanite -- Unreal Engine 5's new virtualized geometry system -- allows for over 100x the detail than previously possible. Rayner continued saying that the team can do so many new things with light, saying that fully dynamic real-time global illumination lighting "has been a long sought-after feature, but up until now, it's not been possible on console. Lumen is a total game-changer".

PC gamers are flocking to Windows 11 faster than you'd think, with the new Steam Hardware Survey data for March 2022 showing that 16.84% of users on Steam are now using Microsoft's latest OS.

There are around 16.84% of Steam users running Windows 11, where in March 2022 the new operating system scooped up another 1.25% (up from 15.59% in February 2022) away from Windows 10. Windows 10 lost 1% of users in March 2022, dropping to 74.69% of PC users running Windows 10.

The results aren't too surprising, given the big push by Microsoft for Windows 11 but there's just nothing pulling gamers to it. Sure there's some cool new tricks under the hood, but there's no games where I'm sitting here like "oh man, I've got to install Windows 11 so I can play X". Nothing. Nada. Zip.