Gaming - Page 388

Sony has 11 TV shows and films based on key PlayStation IPs in development, the company has announced.

Sony plans to adapt most of its video games IP into film and TV show productions. Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra confirms that there are nearly a dozen

"Right now there are currently 10 additional film and projects with PlayStation [not including Uncharted] in various stages of production and development, including The Last of Us, Twisted Metal, Ghost of Tsushima," Vinciquerra said.

Microsoft is developing a small dongle/puck that will bring Xbox gaming to all TVs, sources tell Windows Central.

Microsoft's new Project Keystone device is essentially a Chromecast that plugs into your TV and allows Xbox Game Pass streaming. The hardware is described as a dongle, or a puck, similar to a Google Chromecast, that acts as a receiver for streamed content. It's kind of like a Roku, only instead of streaming Netflix, you'll be streaming Xbox games.

"Xbox Keystone" originally appeared in a Windows OS list as an Xbox product.

Sony is chasing Fortnite and Apex's billion-dollar revenues and wants to have a dozen live service games up and running in the next 3 years. Bungie will help, but don't expect all of these games to be Destiny-likes.

Sony is doubling-down on live service games and plans to release 12 live titles on the market by 2025. Earnings projections show that Sony has massive confidence these games will be successful. The company expects add-on revenues (microtransactions) to reach $24 billion by 2025, which suggests a few things.

We know that Bungie is guiding Sony's live service plans. But this level of revenue growth strongly indicates a diversified slate of games that could be outside of the types of games Bungie is known for. The sheer volume of games coupled with the significant jump to $24 billion earnings (a 7.5% CAGR growth rate) suggests that Sony's live games will deliver a broad spectrum of experiences that appeal to different demographics/age groups and types of gamers across different platforms.

PlayStation is moving towards online-driven live service games across consoles, PC, and mobile, and its latest strategic acquisitions reflect its new plans.

Sony is going all-in on two of gaming's biggest money-makers: Live services, led by billion-dollar titans like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Minecraft, and mobile, who is dominated by the likes of Honor of Kings and Candy Crush. To successfully break into these markets, Sony will need lots of expertise and know-how. The company has been building its foundation with solid acquisitions, but it may need more teams to make its plans come to fruition.

Sony's latest 2022 Business Strategy Meeting details its grand ambitions to make at least 12 live games by 2025, and to make sure mobile accounts for 20% of its first-party releases by the same year. This is no small feat for a company that has primarily released big-budget singleplayer system-sellers like Horizon, God of War, and Spider-Man.

Sony is going all-in on mobile gaming, an plans to release 1/5th of its first-party games on mobile by 2025.

Sony is ramping up for big diversification. PlayStation is no longer limited to consoles, and Sony has already brought its games to PC. Now it's shifting towards mobile, too.

In a recent 2022 Business Strategy Meeting presentation, Sony has confirmed its plans for significant expansion across PC and mobile. By 2025, Sony expects a whopping 20% of its first-party titles onto mobile. This aligns with the company's heavy push into live services as most mobile titles should be live games.

Fate Grand Order developer Lasengle will help lead Sony's new push into mobile games.

Sony is going all-in on mobile gaming. The billion-dollar games-maker announced that it is shifting its core focus to include PC and mobile, and plans to use Fate Grand Order, its only big mobile hit, as a template.

In a recent business segment report, Sony executives confirmed that Lasengle is not only making new premium, high-quality mobile games for its PlayStation division, but also helping synergize with other projects and teams.

A modder is currently working on a new Elden Ring mod that will bring seamless co-op to FromSoftware's latest title.

The mod is created by LukeYui, and while Elden Ring already supports co-op, the new mod will allow players to explore the Land Between more as players who join a friend will no longer be confined to bosses or certain areas. The mod is expected to enter public beta on May 27, and as displayed in the above video, players are able to receive shared rewards from enemies, engage in PvP, and even spectate the other player if they have died.

While many Elden Ring players are excited about the coming mod, there is a decently large group of players against its addition due to the mod not supporting any of FromSoftware's online services, which means that invasions aren't possible. If many of Elden Ring's player base download the mod, it will separate the total player base into players who are playing Elden Ring "offline" with the mod and those who are available for an invasion via FromSoftware's online services.

Sony has confirmed that existing PlayStation Plus subscribers will need to pay a pro-rated fee to upgrade to the new Extra or Premium tiers. Here's what you can expect to pay.

The new PlayStation Plus is coming next month, but upgrading to the new Extra and Premium tiers will cost a fee. The upgrades are free for current PS Now subscribers but not for PS Plus members.

If you currently have an active PS Plus subscription, you can upgrade to Extra or Premium for a pro-rated cost. We've done some calculations to determine how much you'll be paying to upgrade your base PS Plus sub.

UPDATE:Sony has confirmed the extra fees were an error, and has fixed the problem.

Sony's new PlayStation Plus rollout just got a lot more controversial...and confusing.

Reports indicate that Sony may charge specific PlayStation Plus subscribers an extra fee to upgrade their subscriptions to the new Extra and Premium tiers. Existing PS Plus subscribers may have to pay two compounded fees: One pro-rated fee, and the extra fee to compensate for any discounts.

New upgraded PlayStation 5 and Xbox consoles are coming in 2023 or 2024, electronics giant TCL predicts.

During a recent press event in Poland attended by Polish website PPE, TV-maker TCL outlined its predictions for a PS5 and Xbox Series mid-cycle refresh. The firm expects both Sony and Microsoft to release new "pro" versions of each console sometime next year or in 2024.

TCL has made some bold predictions on possible PS5 Pro and Xbox X/S Pro spec targets. The company postulates the consoles could deliver 8K 60FPS output and up to 4K 120FPS rendering, which is a pretty tall order for dedicated video games hardware. The so-called Gen 9.5 seems like it would performance befit of an actual generational leap rather than a mid-cycle refresh.

The latest No Man's Sky update transforms the game into a roguelike, complete with interstellar space whales.

No Man's Sky just keeps getting crazier and crazier in all the best ways. Today's new update, Leviathan, adds cosmic space whales and a unique time loop mechanic that essentially makes the game into a survival roguelike. The game is clearly a canvas for Hello Games' imagination to run wild and the team shows no signs of stopping just yet.

Oh, and one of the coolest features involves multiplayer. Hello Games is experimenting a lot with its live game focus. The more players that participate in the time loop, the stronger their bonuses become. During each run players can find procedurally-generated "memory fragments" that essentially include upgrades and technology. The more people that play, the better these bonuses become.

MSI has announced that it is updating its MEG series, MPG series, and MAG series products with new symbols and new looks for gamers. Check them out:

MSI breaks down its gaming products into three different segments: MEG series, MPG series, and MAG series. The company has now revealed new graphical symbols designed for each series, with new symbols that "will not only generate a new visual identity but also clearly define each series. More specifically, with the involvement of new symbols, the new looks of the MEG, MPG, and MAG series will also be presented to gamers".

We won't see the fruits of MSI's new symbol labor until "early 2023" when the new graphics will be applied to gaming motherboards, gaming desktops, gaming monitors, gaming chairs, cases, power supplies, and liquid coolers. MSI adds "with our new symbols, we have defined the design languages of each series and planned to make the products look like they belong in the same family".

AMD is getting more games onto the roster for FSR 2.0, with the latest game joining the ranks being Farming Simulator 22.

In the latest update to Farming Simulator 22 we're getting AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 2.0 support, becoming the second game with FSR 2.0 alongside DEATHLOOP. The new Patch 1.5 for Farming Simulator 22 is quite extensive, with some details below.

The developer explains: "We have a pallet full of game improvements for you! Patch 1.5 is now available for Farming Simulator 22 - and brings a variety of optimizations and quality-of-(farming)-life improvements to the game. Like increased pallet limits".

Just like the original Modern Warfare reboot, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 will release in October.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 will launch on October 28, 2022, Activision has announced. Leaked files show the game is coming to both current-gen (PS4, Xbox One) and next-gen (PS5, Xbox Series X/S) consoles.

The announcement also reveals Modern Warfare's playable tactical team which includes renowned characters like Price, Soap, and Ghost, alongside some new faces.

Apex Legends has made over $2 billion in revenues since launching in 2019, making it one of EA's most valuable IPs.

Right on schedule, Apex Legends has made over $2 billion in three years on the market. The free-to-play shooter remains one of the most powerful games in EA's live service arsenal and is set to grow with a mobile version that's launching soon.

"Our healthy live services growth was driven by strength across our broad-based portfolio, most notably by Apex Legends and FIFA," EA chief financial officer Chris Suh said in a recent Q4 earnings call.

Yesterday, Elon Musk, the world's richest individual, praised FromSoftware's latest release that has captured many gamers, Elden Ring.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter yesterday to praise Elden Ring, writing that when experienced "in its entirety," it's "the most beautiful art I have ever seen". The praise comes as no surprise as Elden Ring has already been given extremely high scores across numerous independent review sources, with many gamers and even publications giving it a 10/10.

Now, Musk has followed up on his Elden Ring post by replying to a Twitter account that asked him his method of playing the game and what in-game damage build he opted for. Musk replied by writing, "power mage, but decent with a sword/katana". Closing out the tweet, Musk said he will post a picture of his build "tomorrow", which can be seen above. Elon Musk's character is level 111, and it currently holds 10899 runes.

GameStop's new NFT marketplace will go live by the end of July, the company today announced.

In a bid to embrace the digital age, ailing retailer GameStop has decided to open an NFT marketplace that will allow consumers to buy and sell digital assets. To facilitate its new platform, GameStop has developed the GME Wallet that promises to "securely store crypto and NFTs". Right now the app is only available as a browser Chrome extension, but an iPhone app is on the way.

"Use GameStop's Wallet to store, send and receive cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Connect to the upcoming NFT marketplace right from your web browser or mobile device," the wallet's description reads. The NFT marketplace will use Layer 2 for quicker transactions and other benefits.

Modern-day Marvel and Spider-Man games could've been very, very different.

Back in 2014, Marvel was at a crossroads. The company wanted to make more big-budget video games to complement its growing cinematic universe. They bought back Activision's rights to Spider-Man and wanted to license the IP out to other big players, namely Microsoft or Sony.

In fact, Marvel reached out directly to Microsoft and offered specific licensing rights to key franchises and IPs. The Xbox giant turned Marvel down and opted to focus on its own growing stable of first-party games, which then included projects like The Master Chief Collection, Forza games, Sunset Overdrive, Fable, Quantum Break, ReCore, and Gears titles.

TikTok is reportedly planning to add video games to its mega-popular social media app, sources tell Reuters.

App giant Bytedance is currently experimenting with adding video games onto TikTok. Testing is underway in Vietnam that allows users to play games within the app itself. Web-based browser games are currently offered on the app; these HTML games are widely popular in Asia regions, especially for publishers like Square Enix and SEGA.

Speculation is that this would significantly boost TikTok's advertisement revenues, which are on track to hit $11 billion, as well as royalties from any third-party games that may be offered on the app. TikTok is among the most-used apps on the planet and currently has over 1 billion monthly active users. The app's ad tech platform--a robust service that has generated billions every year--should attract major interest from game-makers.

Take-Two Interactive has now officially merged with Zynga to create one of the most formidable powerhouses in gaming.

Gaming's second-largest mega-merger is complete. Following a $12.7 billion share buyout, Take-Two and Zynga have combined into one significant gaming powerhouse.

With Zynga, Take-Two has acquired one of its missing pieces. Zynga's mobile expertise and ad tech platform will deliver incredible synergies to Take-Two's business, including more robust mobile titles and free-to-play integration into key IPs.