Gaming - Page 392

Ubisoft plans to release at least 4 AAA games in the fiscal year ending March 2023, including the long-awaited Skull & Bones.

Ubisoft's next FY2023 period should deliver a handful of unique games across a wide spectrum of genres. The company wants to release four big titles from April 2022 - March 2023, including:

The slate is missing heavy-hitters like Assassin's Creed or a Tom Clancy title, however Ubisoft says this year will be the largest ever for Rainbow Six content and features. There's also more Assassin's Creed content planned throughout 2022, but the major new AC title won't launch in FY23.

Ubisoft's holiday 2021 earnings have dropped due to a smaller number of game releases.

Today Ubisoft announced its Q3'21 figures, and while respectable, the numbers are substantially lower than last year's period. This led to a 30% drop in sales and a 25% reduction in net bookings. Some vital context is needed.

The main reason for the slip is that Ubisoft released more games in 2020 than it did in 2021. Ubisoft had a stacked holiday 2020 period with multiple heavy-hitting games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Watch Dogs Legion launching with next-gen consoles. The Q3 2021 period only really had Far Cry 6 and Just Dance 2022 to prop up holiday sales.

Ubisoft shrugs off direct questions about being acquired by a larger company like Sony or Microsoft.

Having fought off one hostile takeover against Vivendi, Ubisoft wants to remain as free as it can for as long as possible. Billion-dollar giants like Microsoft and Sony are flashing pocketbooks to buy up content IP to power their ecosystems of services and hardware.

Ubisoft is one of the last major games companies that hasn't been purchased...and that's how company executives want it to stay. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot says the publisher is stable and doesn't technically have a reason to sell.

Embracer Group has over 200 games in development, and most of them remain unannounced.

With its sheer volume of developers, labels, and owned IP, Embracer Group is one biggest games companies on the planet. In updated figures, the multimedia giant says it has an incredible 216 game projects that are currently in development. Most of these games are unannounced; there are 149 mystery titles in the pipeline across Embracer's massive array of developers.

The significant increase in game projects reflects some of Embracer's most recent major buyouts, which include Gearbox Entertainment, 3D Realms, Perfect World Entertainment (nestled under Gearbox), and Aspyr.

EA executive Laura Miele reportedly blames Halo Infinite for setting a positive example and poaching Battlefield 2042's playerbase. This line of thought could easily be applied to another mega-hit shooter that EA's responsible for.

According to recent reports sourced from obtained internal documents, EA execs are trying to figure out where Battlefield 2042 went wrong. The usual suspects apply: Live games are difficult to make, the pandemic, and competitors. EA's Laura Miele reportedly mentioned Halo Infinite by name and suggested Halo's polished state set a high water mark for Battlefield 2042...which is a curious statement for two reasons.

One, Halo Infinite had lots of problems at launch. Monetization, bugs, glitches--Big Team Battle was nigh-unplayable for months and it currently has very serious issues with desync and cheating. Gunplay was polished. Many other things were not.

Metro Exodus has sold 6 million copies to date, the Embracer Group has confirmed.

The Metro franchise remains one of Deep Silver's heavy-hitting tentpole franchises and has contributed strongly to overall quarterly earnings. Metro Exodus has sold more than 6 million units since its release on February 2019, making it one of the most popular in the series. While Embracer hasn't given regular updates on total Metro game or franchise sales, these figures are more than respectable and are responsible in part to Koch Media's $78 million revenues generated in Q3'21.

"Back-catalog sales were also driven by the evergreen title Metro Exodus, which has sold 6 million copies since its launch in February 2019," Embracer said in its recent report.

CD PROJEKT RED has pushed out a rather large patch for Cyberpunk 2077, with the v1.5 patch including a plethora of tweaks, new features, and so much more -- for all platforms -- not just the PC.

Inside of Cyberpunk 2077's new v1.5 update is a built-in benchmark for the PC, but also AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 1.0 which joins the ranks against NVIDIA and its DLSS technology inside of CDPR's flagship game. Previously, Cyberpunk 2077 had an option for Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS) but now FSR 1.0 has replaced it.

Cyberpunk 2077's new addition of AMD FSR support can be enabled in the "Graphics" menu of the Settings, and then down the bottom under Ray Tracing you'll see "Resolution Scaling" and have the options for NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR technologies.

CD PROJEKT RED has pushed out a rather large patch for Cyberpunk 2077, with the v1.5 patch including a plethora of tweaks, new features, and so much more -- for all platforms -- not just the PC.

One of the biggest and surprise additions in the new Cyberpunk 2077 update was the inclusion of a built-in benchmark, which will run a benchmark within a pre-determined path of the game and give you the results you need. You can benchmark with the vanilla version of the game, with DLSS -- or the newly-added AMD FSR upscaling tech option -- as well as ray tracing.

There are a bunch of PC-specific things that CD PROJEKT RED have added into the v1.5 update for Cyberpunk 2077, including a "Toggle walking" button when you're playing with your keyboard. When you're exploring, simply press "G" on your keyboard although this can be rebinded in your settings.

Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't exactly hit next-gen performance on Xbox Series S consoles, but CD Projekt may change that.

Yesterday Cyberpunk 2077 got a huge upgrade on PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles with 4K 60FPS and raytracing modes, improved loading times, and haptic feedback support. The Xbox Series S, however, is locked to 30FPS with dynamically scaled 1440p resolution. That's not great news to anyone with a Series S.

Luckily it looks like CDPR wants to at least try and boost the FPS on Series S systems. "We are also looking into the possibility of [raising FPS cap on Xbox Series S], but at the moment we don't have any details to share," CDPR's Marcin Momot said.

Nintendo plans to permanently remove NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, and other retro classic games from sale starting in 2023.

From 2023 onward, Switch Online service will be the only place gamers can experience retro Nintendo games. Earlier today Nintendo announced it would close the Wii U and 3DS eShops in 2023. Starting next year, gamers will not be able to buy content from either the Wii U or 3DS storefronts, including a wealth of Virtual Console games across legacy systems. This effectively removes these old-school retro hits from the market.

In a now-deleted section of its announcement FAQ, Nintendo said it "currently has no plans to offer classic content in other ways" outside of Switch Online. Just a bit ago we discussed how Nintendo was evolving the Switch Online subscription service with additive value. This particular move sees the company is boosting value with the omission of choice rather than additional content.

Sony receives criticism for using marketing materials to allegedly push gamers into buying a more expensive $69.99 Horizon Forbidden West bundle. But why is that?

Sony is selling two cross-gen bundles for Horizon Forbidden West. One is $69.99 and comes with a PS4 and PS5 copy. The other is $59.99 and comes with a PS4 copy and a digital upgrade to the PS5 version. Functionally, both options are identical. Sony splits cross-gen games into two SKUs, so any bundle that you buy will unlock both a PS4 and a separate PS5 version of the game.

So why does the $69.99 version exist at all? There's a few reasons. One is that the $59.99 version cannot be purchased on the PS5's storefront. Two is that the SKU existed before Sony made the announcement to honor their prior commitment and offer a free next-gen upgrade. Three, it's possible the $69.99 PS4 and PS5 bundle offers a permanent license to both versions of the game, and the $59.99 PS4 version offers a limited-time upgrade to PS5 that could expire.

Can you gaming PC handle Elden Ring? Let's find out.

FromSoftware just released Elden Ring's official PC spec requirements, and they're not too bad. The game will run on lower-end Xbox One and PS4 hardware from 2013 after all.

The devs haven't announced perf targets for the following GPU and CPU combinations, but it's implied minimum specs will hit around 720p 30FPS at low settings whereas minimum could be around 1080p 60FPS at medium settings. So far Elden Ring doesn't look like a crazy next-gen spectacle so the lower-end specs make sense here.

Seagate's new Game Drives prep your console for one of the biggest PS5 games on the market.

Games are getting bigger and bigger, but luckily Seagate has you covered. Horizon Forbidden West, for example, clocks in at a massive 87GB on PS5 (even though the official PlayStation Store doesn't give exact file sizes). That's 13% of the PS5's available onboard SSD storage, which goes extra fast because the PS5 SSD's nefarious Other section fills up and takes lots of space.

Luckily Seagate has you covered with its Game Drive expandable storage. The latest lineup features Horizon Forbidden West's Aloy and comes in 2TB and 5TB capacities, which is plenty of space for the massive new open-world game.

Cyberpunk 2077 is finally playable on consoles thanks to a new free next-gen patch, offering tons of upgrades and optimizations for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S hardware.

After a full year of controversy, the definitive console version of Cyberpunk 2077 is now out on next-gen hardware. The new version is free for anyone who bought the game on PS4 or Xbox One and features a bunch of enhancements including a 4K 60FPS mode (with dynamic scaling) as well as 4K 30FPS with ray tracing on. Sadly the game runs at 1440p 30FPS on Xbox Series S without any other game modes.

Cyberpunk 2077 has been tweaked for both next-gen consoles. On PlayStation 5, the game supports the console's Tempest 3D architecture offering 3D audio, haptic DualSense feedback, activity card support. The game also supports smart delivery on Series X/S so there's no need for multiple downloads, and sadly the PS4 trophies don't transfer to the PS5 version because it's technically a different game entirely.

We are hours away from the unleashing of Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone Pacific Season 2, which will introduce some map changes to Caldera, new vehicles, weapons, and so much more.

Warzone Pacific Season 2 kicks off today across all platforms, weighing in at up to 47GB on the PlayStation... while there's something that was music to my ears: Rebirth Island Iron Trials on a new Rebirth Reinforced layout that will change up Rebirth in a huge way.

There's a new Bomber for Warzone Season 2, with the new Bomber plane capable of destroying Loadout Drops... which were, until now at least, indestructible. That's a huge change to the meta of Warzone, and will surely have people yelling into their mics for days. Now while the new Bomber sounds OP, the developer has been nerfing planes in preparation for Season 2 -- plane health decreases will be unveiled in full when the update goes live.

It turns out that Square Enix had the metaverse figured out a while back.

As more and more companies announce their plans for the metaverse, it's important to take a look at key examples that already exist in the market today. With its penchant for inter-connected transmedia and multi-game releases, Square Enix had inadvertently created a conceptual metaverse for Final Fantasy 15 years ago. Now it's doing the same thing with Final Fantasy 7.

A while back, Square Enix was going all-in on Final Fantasy 15. The plans were so ambitious that I called FF15 the new Skyrim. Square Enix created what it called the Final Fantasy 15 Universe, which included a vast webwork of games, animated shows, and even a stunning feature-length CGI film. The mainline FF15 game was the core of this early metaverse and everything branched out--and led to--the centralized framework.

Bandai Namco outlines plans for its IP Metaverse, a vast inter-connected webwork of services, games, and interactive media.

The metaverse is gaming's latest hot trend. The nebulous concept is a convergence of the most powerful mechanisms of gaming: online interaction, personalized customizable social hubs, launching/playing/sharing games, and a service-based ecosystem that offers games, movies, and interactive experiences that are monetized and scaled across a huge network. It's basically a combination of Final Fantasy 14, the PlayStation Network, and the PlayStation Store all-in-one.

Bandai Namco is the latest publisher to embrace the metaverse. The company says it plans to launch a new initiative for an IP Metaverse, which would create a "metaverse", or a ring of inter-connected interactive experiences, for each of its IPs. This strongly implies that franchises like Tekken, Dragon Ball, Gundam, Pac-Man, and Naruto would all get their own content hubs.

A Cryptopunk NFT has sold for nearly $24 million, proving the speculative market is extremely lucrative.

Chain.com CEO Deepak Thapliyal just purchased CryptoPunk#5822 for $23.6 million, or 8,000 ETH, making it the most expensive NFT in the CryptoPunk collection. This is also the fourth largest NFT purchase of all time, and dwarfs the previous CryptoPunk sales record, CryptoPunk#7523's sale for $11.8 million in 2021.

Data from DappRadar notes that the CryptoPunk line generated over $31 million in NFT sales in the week from February 7 - February 13.

Cyberpunk 2077's PS5 and Xbox Series X/S release date could finally be announced tomorrow.

Gamers who have been waiting for the definitive, fixed version of Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles may get some good news soon. CD Projekt today announced a special Cyberpunk stream will go live tomorrow, February 15 at 4PM CET (10AM EST) on the official CDPR Twitch channel.

The developer previously said Cyberpunk 2077's next-gen release would launch in Q1 2022. It's already February, so the game could still release across the rest of the month and the full month of March. CDPR also confirmed CP2077's PS5 and Xbox Series X/S launch would be free for existing PS4 and Xbox One owners, and rightly so given the game's near-unplayable launch condition.

Nintendo may delay its next-gen Switch Pro or Switch 4K due to the ongoing chip shortage.

Now is not a good time to release games hardware. 2023 may not be much better, either. Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and a multitude of hardware makers are facing a worldwide chip shortage. Supply lines are constrained and production costs have risen as a result, and hardware is more expensive to make. This typically leads to two things: lower production volume and lower profits.

Meanwhile the gaming market is booming. The pandemic has kicked off a new level of hardware and software spending, and consumer hardware demand has been voracious throughout the shortage. It's not an issue of gamers wanting to buy hardware. It's an issue of companies being able to produce hardware, ship it, and then make enough of a profit on the hardware to make it necessarily worth it--or at least maintain according values.