Gaming - Page 397

Ubisoft's recent Quartz NFTs are disastrous PR nightmare that've been ridiculed by pundits, consumers, fans, and the press. Instead of reversing course, Ubisoft is doubling down.

Ubisoft believes in NFTs and isn't giving up. The wildly unpopular Quartz NFTs are "just the beginning" of what's to come. Ubisoft has a grand vision in how its NFT platform will work out--despite not actually revealing said plan or discussing details. It's the gamers and consumers who "don't get it," one dev says.

In a recent interview with Finder, Nicolas Pouard, who has worked at Ubisoft's Strategic Innovations R&D lab with blockchain games since 2018, said this about NFTs:

The new Evil Dead game has been delayed for a second time and will now release on Friday the 13th in May.

Evil Dead: The Game has been pushed back again. This time it will launch May 13, 2022 on all systems as a feature-complete product with PVP, PVE, and solo play.

For decades SEGA's name has been above Japan's bustling arcades. Then COVID-19 disrupted the market, forcing SEGA to spin off its arcade business to avoid disastrous losses. Now SEGA's name is being removed entirely.

In 2020, SEGA sold off 85.1% of its arcade business shares to Genda Inc. A new company was born from this transaction: Genda SEGA Entertainment.

Today Genda announced that it has purchased 14.9% of SEGA's remaining shares and the company will be renamed to Genda GiGo Entertainment. SEGA's name will be removed from all arcade centers throughout Japan and be replaced with the new GiGo brand.

Call of Duty Warzone is getting a sequel that will flip the reset switch and start fresh.

Warzone 2 will essentially follow in Destiny 2's footsteps. Reports from Tom Henderson indicate that the Warzone sequel will wipe the slate clean and start fresh, complete with new content, operators, weapons, etc. Warzone 2's map is reportedly being made by Infinity Ward, and will launch alongside the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 reboot sequel in November 2022.

The biggest departure is that Warzone 2 will only connect to a single mainline game, Modern Warfare 2, when it releases in 2022. It's set to be a highly-optimized, streamlined, and next-gen connective tissue between MW2 and the games that come next.

NetherRealm has a little fun with Mortal Kombat fans' predilection of wild goose chases and suppositions.

A bit ago NetherRealm senior production manager Jonathan Andersen reportedly posted up a Mortal Kombat image on Twitter...and then promptly deleted it. At first glance everything looks normal--it's just some old legacy artwork for Injustice and some Mortal Kombat adverts. Closer inspection (look on the upper right) reveals some interestingly-named desktop icons: KI_Planning, dinosaur, and a reference to MK12.

Even closer inspection reveals a tongue-in-cheek email from Christine Letheby, NetherRealm's production manager, which mentions: "Our fans eagerly scrape the internet for any trace..."which is undoubtedly a nod to Injustice 3 and Mortal Kombat 12 theories floating around.

Yacht Club Games teases a huge announcement at their upcoming showcase, which will be streamed on G4TV's new Twitch channel.

The third Yacht Club Games Presents stream is coming back on Tuesday, February 1st at 2pm PDT on G4's Twitch channel. The devs are hyping up the show with some pretty explosive language surrounding a groundbreaking announcement. Could this be a clever pun for a new Shovel Knight game, or perhaps even a TV show based on the mega-popular indie franchise?

The stream will have "boatload of new updates, never-before-seen gameplay sneak peeks, DLC, and a groundbreaking announcement," Yacht Club says. This show will be one for the ages: "We have a bunch of cool announcements including an exciting MEGATON ANNOUNCEMENT! You do not want to miss this historic event!"

Death Stranding Director's Cut is coming to Steam and the Epic Games Store on March 30, publisher 505 Games has announced.

The definitive version of Kojima's ultra-weird journey simulator is coming to PC in March for a reduced cost. Death Stranding Director's Cut will cost $39.99 on both Steam and the Epic Games Store (with variable regional pricing). Anyone who currently owns a copy of the base game can pay $9.99 to upgrade to the Director's Cut.

"To upgrade, owners simply need to install the standard edition of the game, then purchase the DIRECTOR'S CUT through the in-game store-front at the discounted rate," a press release says.

Elder Scrolls Online's new expansion is called High Isle, and takes place in a Breton island-kingdom that was specifically created for ESO.

Today Bethesda announced ESO's full-year content roadmap for 2022, including new expansions and DLC. The 2022 theme is Legacy of the Bretons, and the new expansion (also called chapters) is High Isle, which comes jam-packed with new content including gear, zones, dungeons, and even a Gwent-like card game.

Here's a timeline:

Crytek goes on a big hiring spree as it ramps up development on Crysis 4.

Crysis 4 is officially happening. Instead of announcing the game with a splash at E3 or The Game Awards, Crytek instead used Crysis 4's announcement for recruitment. It's so early that Crytek isn't trying to build hype yet--it's trying to build a workforce. Blizzard just did the same thing with the announcement of its new fantasy IP.

Right now Crytek is hiring a ton of developers across multiple disciplines, including senior and director level roles. There's 23 job openings available at its Frankfurt, Germany studio that range from concept artists (who lay out the early visions for games) to design directors and weapon designers.

Free-to-play battle royale Hyper Scape is officially shutting down, Ubisoft Montreal today announced.

Ubisoft hit the ground running in 2020 with battle royale FPS Hyper Scape, an attempt to cash in on the billion-dollar Apex Legends and Warzone craze. Despite a fiery marketing campaign that recruited big-name streamers, the game fizzled out and lost steam over time. Now it's being shut down as Ubisoft Montreal moves to other projects.

Sony's next big PlayStation console exclusive has been finalized.

Horizon Forbidden West has officially gone gold, and is now feature-complete and ready to ship. Guerrilla Games announced the news today with much fanfare, locking in the February 18, 2022 release date for Aloy's new adventure.

The sequel is one of the most ambitious games in the new PS5 generation, and Guerrilla's biggest title to date. Horizon Forbidden West introduces a significant amount of changes to gameplay, including fundamental shake-ups to verticality and exploration with free climbing and an arc glider. There's also a new outfit-based gear system that will buff skills and abilities.

AT&T's latest Q4 earnings report has no mention of video games and gives no updates on the current events at WB Games.

It's been a while since we've heard from WB Games, and parent company AT&T is no help. The company's Q4 brief didn't mention WB Games, video games, or any current game projects currently in the works. Execs mostly discussed the performance of WarnerMedia's HBO Max subscription (which has grown to 73.8 million subscribers). This isn't unusual for AT&T, who rarely mentions video games during its presentation.

The silence is made all the more loud by the looming acquisition. AT&T is about to merge WarnerMedia with Discovery in a $43 billion deal. All WarnerMedia subsidiaries including WB Games and its studios (Netherealm, Monolith, Rocksteady) will jump over to Discovery.

Today WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar re-iterated that WB Games will deliver a "full slate of highly anticipated games" in 2022.

It looks like WB Games' biggest games are coming this year after all--or at least that's the plan. WarnerMedia's Jason Kilar gave fans hope with a Twitter thread saying that 2022 will be a big year for games. The pictures included Gotham Knights, and Hogwarts Legacy. Rocksteady's new Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League game wasn't pictured but it was implicitly attached.

Some outlets report this means all three games will indeed release in 2022, or at least Gotham Knights and Hogwarts Legacy will. This isn't necessarily the case. All studios have been quiet outside of their initial launch announcements and if anything, Kilar is just reinforcing these existing plans.

Dying Light 2 will be supplied with new content until at least 2027.

Techland is going all out with Dying Light 2. Just like the first game, which had new content launching five years after release, the developers are prepared to support Dying Light 2 with new content for multiple years.

"It all starts on release, but it's just the beginning! We're planning to keep enhancing the game with DLCs, challenges, stories, events, and more for at least 5 years, and that's a minimum! You sure won't be bored!" Techland said on Twitter, revealing its new timeline roadmap for post-launch Dying Light 2 content.

Activision-Blizzard refuses to formally recognize the Game Workers Alliance, the proposed union of Raven Software's QA team, forcing a National Labor Relations Board election process.

Days ago, 34 people at Raven Software's QA team formally asked Activision-Blizzard to recognize their newly-formed union. The Game Workers Alliance, the QA testers became collectively known, would be the first video games union in the United States.

Raven's QA team ended their weeks-long work stoppage after the intent to unionize became known. The strike affected critical testing in Call of Duty Warzone, one of Activision-Blizzard's most lucrative video games.

Halo Infinite could get crossover content from the Halo TV show, possibly new weapons, vehicles, and cosmetic armor sets.

Today 343 Industries revealed a ton of new info about the upcoming Halo TV show, which is set to premiere on Paramount+ sometime soon. The post mentions a lot of interesting points like confirming the SPARTAN-II programs grisly, dark origins will be a part of the show, and also touches on the show's new divergent timeline.

The Halo TV show takes place in the "Silver" timeline, which is a separate and parallel timeline that exists outside of the base Halo canon. (Silver is also the name of the show's fireteam--Chief was part of Blue Team in the original canon). This gives 343i lots of room to bend and manipulate timelines and events to make things more show-friendly.

Valve's Steam Deck hasn't been delayed again, and will start shipping to buyers and the very end of February.

Today Valve announced Steam Deck reservations will start redemption on February 25. Users who pre-ordered a first wave Steam Deck will have 3 days to complete the purchase. If you don't pay for your reservation it will be passed down to the next person.

The first wave of Steam Deck handheld PCs will start shipping out on February 28, 2022 and open up a new dimension of PC gaming on-the-go experiences powered by a custom AMD Zen 2 + RDNA 2 SoC capable of serious handheld performance and compatibility with practically every Steam game on the market.

It's happening... it's finally happening -- Crytek is making a next-gen Crytek game, right in the middle of a pandemic-fueled GPU shortage.

Crytek announced Crysis 4 out of nowhere, saying: "It's something you have been asking us for a long time, so it's now finally time to confirm - yes, the next Crysis game is happening! We are so pleased and excited to bring this news to you, and we really can't wait to reveal more details about what lies ahead".

The developer continues: "Right now the game is in the early stages of development so it will be a while yet, but we wanted to bring you the news at this time as we are so hyped for the future, and to let you know that we will be listening to our community".

Halo Infinite has amassed a substantial 20 million players since launch, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirms, a somewhat foggy KPI given the game's conditions.

Xbox gaming just delivered its best quarter of all time with $5.4 billion in revenues. On top of that, more than 20 million people have played Halo Infinite since release. That's about 20 million users in 48 days. A pretty big milestone.

Nadella also touts that Infinite was the largest debut in the history of Halo, however this is to be expected considering Infinite is not only free-to-play, but included with Xbox Game Pass, which has 25 million active subscribers on consoles and PC. The point is that there's a lot of access points to Halo Infinite--that's no mistake, as Microsoft makes its games to drive services and subscriptions.

The next two mainline Call of Duty games will release on PlayStation platforms and will not be Xbox exclusives.

Call of Duty won't be Xbox exclusive until 2025, sources tell Bloomberg in a new report. Sony's pre-existing deal with Activision will prevent full Call of Duty Xbox exclusivity following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard.

Sony's deal includes the next three Call of Duty games: 2022's Modern Warfare 2, a new shooter from Treyarch, another game--as well as a new version of Call of Duty Warzone.