Gaming - Page 400

It's expected that developer Battlestate Games will unleash NVIDIA DLSS technology into its new update for Escape from Tarkov, which could drop this week.

Escape from Tarkov is a super-hard game on your PC as it is, so any performance help is very, very welcomed. NVIDIA's kick-ass DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) technology will offer its multiple upscaling modes in Escape from Tarkov: Quality, Balanced, and Performance.

The news is coming directly from Battlestate Games CEO Nikita Buyanov, who said in a recent podcast that NVIDIA DLSS support would be dropping in Escape from Tarkov sometime this week, and that it has passed the testing phases required for it to go live into the game.

Epic Games has unleashed Unreal Engine 5 into the world, where you can now download it from the Epic Games Launcher (20GB download). It was released during the State of Unreal 2022 event, where the developer displayed a list of game developers working on games powered by Unreal Engine 5.

During the State of Unreal 2022 live stream, developer Epic Games posted up a picture of a list of game developers that are working on games powered by Unreal Engine 5. The list includes developers like CD PROJEKT RED, Xbox, PlayStation (and PSVR 2), Ninja Theory, Tencent Games, Obsidian Entertainment, The Initiative, Codemasters, Remedy, Bloober, Splash Damage, Gearbox, and so many more.

Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics announced during the State of Unreal 2022 event that its new Tomb Raider game was being made with Unreal Engine 5, while it'll be awesome to see the fruits of the UE5 labor in Sony's next-gen PlayStation VR2 headset and UE5-powered VR games of the future.

Epic Games absolutely blew my mind when I turned my PlayStation 5 on one morning, and got to experience their Unreal Engine 5-powered The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience... which is now available to download. Be warned: The Matrix Awakens UE5-powered "City Sample" is a huge 93GB download.

The Unreal Engine 5-powered "The City Sample" can be downloaded as a sample project, providing the city scene from The Matrix Awakens experience. You'll need to download Unreal Engine 5, which is a 20GB download on its own, and then The City Sample separately.

Epic Games explains: "The City Sample is a free downloadable sample project that reveals how the city scene from The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience was built. The project-which consists of a complete city with buildings, vehicles, and crowds of MetaHuman characters-demonstrates how we used new and improved systems in Unreal Engine 5 to create the experience. In addition to the complete sample, the content is available in separate packs, so you can download just the vehicles, for example".

The new Tomb Raider game will be tapping next-gen Unreal Engine 5 technology, in an announcement from developer Crystal Dynamics.

Crystal Dynamics announced during the "State of Unreal 2022" event that the new Tomb Raider is being built with Unreal Engine 5. We don't know what the new Tomb Raider will be, whether it'll be a successor to Shadow of the Tomb Raider, or something new: but whatever it is, it'll be powered by Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5.

The two previous Tomb Raider games from Crystal Dynamics -- Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider -- used their in-house Foundation Engine. This marks another big developer shifting away from their in-house engine, and into the warm arms of Epic Games and its new Unreal Engine 5 technology. The Witcher developer CD PROJEKT RED recently announced that it is working on a new Witcher game using Unreal Engine 5.

Horror game dev Bloober Team nearly tripled its revenues throughout 2021 thanks to the success of The Medium.

According to latest filings, Polish studio Bloober Team has reported record revenues and profits for 2021. The company made 74.832 million PLN ($18.326 million) in revenues throughout last year, driven by its wide slate of titles including The Medium, Layers of Fear VR, Layers of Fear 2 Switch port, and the recent Observer System Redux remaster.

Bloober Team also made a record for profits in 2021 with 21.783 million PLN ($5.334 million) generated for the period. The studio is currently working on a handful of projects including the next Layers of Fear game. Chinese juggernaut Tencent also purchased a 22% stake in Bloober Team last year.

Halo developer 343 Industries says it does not have plans to add a battle royale mode into Halo Master Chief Collection, but new content is coming soon.

Halo Infinite needs some new modes. Fans are starting to agree that Dr. Disrespect might've been right when he said Infinite should have a BR mode: "The people saying Halo doesn't need a battle royale said Battlefield didn't need one. Now look at where that game is. You have to have one." But what about Halo MCC?

343i has said on three separate occasions that Halo Infinite isn't getting battle royale. Now 343i's communication director Brian Jarrard says the Master Chief Collection won't get it either.

Here's DOOM like you never thought possible back in the 90s when id Software exploded onto the scene with its game-changing first-person shooter... now with ray traving:

A modder who has also added ray-tracing through path tracing into games like Half-Life and Serious Sam: The First Encounter, has now injected ray tracing into the original DOOM and the results are surprising. It looks fantastic next to the original DOOM, giving it a totally new vibe while remaining the same DOOM we all know and love.

The side-by-side comparison is great, as it makes the ray-traced version of DOOM stand out from the original. We've already seen similar, with Quak II RTX released onto Steam and is fully ray-traced, including the 3 levels from the original shareware version of the game. But DOOM with ray tracing on its own is still impressive, as it doesn't have a team of developers behind it. Makes me want to go back through and replay DOOM with ray tracing enabled.https://github.com/sultim-t/prboom-plus-rt/releases

A new Halo Waypoint blog post makes it clear that fans will be waiting quite some time for more Halo Infinite updates and news.

343i has been as transparent as possible regarding new Halo Infinite content. The studio announced that season 2 Lone Wolves is coming on May 3. Lone Wolves brings two new maps--Catalyst for arena and Breaker for BTB--and a handful of classic modes like multi-team and king of the hill are returning. Online campaign co-op has been delayed to "later in season 2". Other than those details, 343i doesn't have a whole lot of concrete info to share.

The latest Halo Waypoint post did two things: First, it relayed all the lessons 343i has learned from season 1 and the content coming in season 2. Secondly, the post pretty much told fans to get used to waiting.

Sony is currently selling a 1-year PlayStation Now subscription for $59.99 that will convert into its new higher-priced PS Plus Premium sub.

Sony is combining PS Now and PS Plus subscriptions together in a new 3-tiered model. Existing PS Now subscribers will carry over to the most expensive tier, PlayStation Plus Premium, which offers 740 games across six console generations.

Deal wizard Wario64 found an impressive deal that could save PlayStation gamers some serious cash. Right now Sony is selling 12-month PS Now memberships for $59.99 that will convert into PlayStation Plus Premium subscription that retails for $119 a year.

E3 2022's all-digital event has been scrapped, and the ESA has sent out internal emails to business partners relaying the news.

While the E3 website says "see you next year" in reference to E3 2022, memos sent out to exhibitors tell a different story. According to info from Razer PR rep Will Powers, E3 2022's all-digital event have been cancelled and the show will skip 2022.

Then an ESA rep told IGN that it E3 will return for 2023 with an all-new format.

Capcom is giving all of its employees a big 30% pay raise as an incentive for retention and recruitment as it aims for its ninth consecutive year of operating earnings growth.

Today Capcom announced that it is increasing base pay for all of its employees. The move follows reorganization of its HR department, which could lead to layoffs and consolidation across the unit. "In order to sustainably strengthen its development and technological capabilities to create the world's finest, high-quality games, Capcom will reorganize its Human Resources around four departmental operations."

As for the pay raise, Capcom plans to increase employee salaries starting today, March 31. "Beginning with the 2022 fiscal year, Capcom will partially revise its compensation system. This will consist of an average base salary increase of 30% (includes the portion for pay raises) and the introduction of a bonus system more closely linked to the company's business performance."

Chinese gaming giant NetEase will reportedly buy Quantic Dream, the developer behind celebrated cinematic games like Beyond Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human.

NetEase is making a big move to buy Quantic Dream, sources have told Tom Henderson. NetEase had purchased a minority stake in Quantic Dream back in 2019 and the acquisition would solidify the company's focus on non-domestic investments; NetEase also gave Bungie $100 million to fund its "bold new vision" in 2018.

Quantic Dream is currently developing three new games: Star Wars Eclipse, a new mobile game, and another mystery project.

Sony recently combined PS Now with PS Plus and announced three new subscription tiers with different prices. One of these subscriptions isn't worth paying the annual rates for.

Sony's new PlayStation Plus tiers are strategically priced to push consumers towards the more expensive 12-month membership options. Sony is offering significant discounts for annual plans of its three new PS Plus tiers, which include Essential, Extra, and Premium (for example, paying month-to-month rates for a year's worth of the Essential membership is double the upfront cost of an annual subscription).

Based on our analysis, the Extra tier isn't worth buying for $100 a year due to the overwhelming added value from the yearly Premium tier option. The Extra tier is essentially the base PlayStation Plus with access to 400 downloadable PS4 and PS5 games.

Sony has confirmed that not every game will stay on the PlayStation Plus Collection.

Back in 2020, Sony released the PS Plus Collection to hit two birds with one stone. The first goal was to give new PS5 owners a bunch of PS4 games to play. The second objective was to help spark PlayStation Plus subscriber retention.

The promotion has apparently worked well, and in tandem with the PS5's release, PS Plus Collection was part of a big PS Plus subscriber push to 47.4 million in Q3 2020, up from 45.9 million in Q2. Retention took a dip in Q1 2021 as PS Plus subscribers fell to 46.3 million, then bounced back to 47.2 million in Q2 before finally settling at a record 48 million in Q3 2021.

In just 9 days, Epic Games, Microsoft, and gamers have raised $100 million in Ukrainian relief donations from Fortnite VBuck purchases.

Epic Games and Microsoft plan to donate over $100 million to worldwide humanitarian nonprofits to aid besieged Ukraine. On March 21, Epic Games announced it would donate 100% of all Fortnite proceeds to Ukrainian relief. Microsoft partnered with Epic to add 100% of Fortnite's Xbox revenues into the mix too. Just a day later, Fortnite players spent $36 million on in-game purchases, and in a week players had spent $70 million. Now nine days after the announcement, Epic and Microsoft reveal that players have raised an astronomical $100 million for Ukraine.

"As of today, we've raised $100 million USD together to support humanitarian relief for people affected by the war in Ukraine. In addition to UNICEF, the World Food Program, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Direct Relief, we are now also collaborating with the World Central Kitchen," Epic Games said.

Riot Games today announced that it has raised $5.4 million in funding to help Ukrainian relief efforts in Eastern Europe.

Riot joins major games-makers in donating multiple millions of dollars to aid Ukraine. The company has donated 100% of all proceeds (revenues minus publisher feeds/cuts) from various in-game purchases in games like Valorant, Legends of Runeterra, Teamfight Tactics, and Wild Rift across a week's time. Riot also released a special Bee skin in League of Legends to help raise funds. In total, Riot has will donate $5.4 million

The games industry has now raised nearly $150 million for Ukraine, led by huge numbers from Epic Games ($100 million), Humble ($20.7 million), the Itch.io Bundle for Ukraine ($6.3 million), and Riot takes fifth place with its $5.4 million donation.

Today Nintendo has officially delayed Breath of the Wild's upcoming sequel to Spring 2023.

Breath of the Wild 2 won't release in 2022, Eiji Aonuma today announced (great news for FromSoftware and Bandai Namco as Elden Ring should secure GOTY 2022). The sequel has seen its first major delay to Spring 2023.

BOTW 2's timeline is quite similar to the original Breath of the Wild, which was delayed twice. Originally announced in 2014 for launch in 2015 on the Wii U, Breath of the Wild wouldn't release for another two years until March 2017 as a major launch game on the Nintendo Switch. The new Breath of the Wild sequel was announced in 2019 and then a release window was announced in 2021. Now roughly three years after the game was revealed, Breath of the Wild 2 has seen a similar development/release schedule.

Activision-Blizzard will settle its sexual harassment lawsuit for just $18 million, a paltry sum compared to how much money the company makes a year.

After months of back and forth between state DFEH and federal EEOC agencies, Judge Dale S. Fischer of the United States District Court for the Central District of California has approved Activision-Blizzard's $18 million settlement proposal for its recent discrimination lawsuit.

The settlement would see Activision creating a $18 million victim's fund that could be dispersed across those affected by sexual harassment or abuse as detailed in the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's lawsuit.

Today Sony announced its new three-tiered PlayStation Plus subscription model that will supercharge its services division.

Sony's new PlayStation Plus subscription model is a powerhouse move. The company has announced full details on its new subscription plan (better known as Spartacus) that should help spark new subscriber growth and retention. Sony earned $3.6 billion from network services in 2021 including subscriptions like PS Now (3.2 million subscribers) and PS Plus (48 million subscribers). Today's news combines both into one cohesive package with added value.

PS Now has been consolidated into PlayStation Plus in a new three-tiered structure--Essential, Extra, and Premium. The Premium tier is where the real value is: Sony is offering access to 740 games across six console/handheld generations including PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, PS5, and the PlayStation Portable. The offerings are strategically split between streamable and downloadable delivery methods (for example, PS3 games are streaming-only, and subscribers can't download games on PC).

Activision's design lead admits that Warzone's install sizes are just "f*cking crazy," and is the massive storage requirements are a big roadblock to new maps.

Warzone is the most important thing Activision has ever done, but like Destiny 2, the BR is hitting a wall. The game is simply too big for its own good. A wealth of highly-optimized assets across a huge sprawling in-game map have historically bloated install sizes past the 100GB mark (thankfully the game is around ~80GB on PC right now). Until Activision finds a better way to compress or optimize its data flows it'll be very hard to rotate new Warzone maps in and out of the game without forcing gamers to essentially re-download the full F2P game.

In a recent interview with TeeP, Activision head of design Josh Bridge delivered a rather candid explanation on what's going on with Warzone. "So, there's a technical problem. The install and reinstall sizes are fucking crazy. It's insane, right?"