Gaming - Page 406

Call of Duty: Warzone has received its 6th patch since the huge Caldera map update, with the Call of Duty: Warzone December 19 patch now being pushed onto servers.

The new Call of Duty: Warzone December 19 update squashes a bunch of bugs, and packs progress tracking on the current Festive Fervor seasonal event. The developer has also fixed collision issues that would let gamers peek, or shoot through things on the map. As someone who loves Warzone Pacific, that has been annoying to say the least.

In the patch notes, we have the developer explaining: "We understand those who have taken a liking to the Cooper Carbine (VG) will be sad to see it receive some rather impactful adjustments". The Cooper Carbine has received some big changes, with the popular Automaton assault rifle being nerfed.

A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin briefly recounts his experiences working with FromSoftware on Elden Ring.

To get help with Elden Ring's lore, FromSoftware enlisted one of the best in the business: Fantasy writer George R.R. Martin, who has tons of experience creating grisly, shadowy stories. Martin co-created Elden Ring's darkly enchanting myth and lore, from which FromSoftware wove a grand fantasy arc set in the Lands Between, a world replete with corruption, high legends, and sweeping medieval castles. The result is something both familiar and entirely new.

"Miyazaki and his team from FromSoftware were doing groundbreaking stuff with gorgeous art, and what they wanted from me was just a bit of worldbuilding: a deep, dark, resonant world to serve as a foundation for the game they planned to create. And as it happens, I love creating worlds and writing imaginary history," Martin said in a blog post.

Diablo IV's new paragon system is confusing at first, but could be just what the game needs to keep players interested for the long run.

Like all Blizzard games, Diablo IV is built with one main goal: To keep you playing as long as possible. After all, the more hours you put into playing, the more likely you are to spend on unique cosmetics to deck out your character. That's monetizing engagement, aka Blizzard's bread and butter. Diablo achieves this goal in two ways: Endless loot, and endless progression. Diablo III did this exceptionally well with its paragon system and massive amount of items. Diablo 4 is going to take both of these a step farther.

Diablo IV's new paragon system is a lot like Path of Exile's skill tree. Diablo IV's paragon boards have multiple "tile" types (not a great term, a better term is "node" like PoE) that range from normal, magic, rare, and legendary. Each class has multiple paragon "boards," too. So once you complete one board, or tree, you get another to complete. Hence never-ending progression.

Blizzard's latest Diablo IV quarterly update showcases new abilities, skills, and animations for the Barbarian, Druid, Sorceress and Rogue character classes.

Blizzard just dropped the fourth D4 update of the year and it's a doozy. A lot of info about the admittedly confusing paragon system was released, as well as confirmation of items that natively grant skill bonuses (think of how Enigma gives +1 teleport to any class).

The update is also a nice visual feast for gamers who want to see Diablo IV in action. Remember the project is in earlier phases of development (Diablo IV has been delayed again) and the footage is pre-alpha. So far everything looks really good and old-school skills have been modernized with impressive graphical upgrades.

Did you buy the Grand Theft Auto trilogy remaster on the Rockstar Store/Launcher? Then you get two free games.

Rockstar Games is giving out two free bonus games to anyone that buys or has bought the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition remaster collection on the Rockstar Launcher. Buyers get free copies of the original PC trilogy by default, and also get to choose one of the following free PC games or in-game content:

The Definitive Edition trilogy remaster is currently on sale for $47.99 on the Rockstar Store and Rockstar Launcher. There's also another bonus $10 discount coupon gifted to anyone who buys the trilogy on the Rockstar Launcher. This coupon can be used for any game that's priced at $15 or more, and has to be used by January 16, 2022.

BioWare may streamline Mass Effect 4's development by moving to the more standardized Unreal Engine 4/5.

A new Tweet from BioWare producer Brenon Holmes might indicate a game engine shift for the studio. Holmes specifically references Unreal Engine alongside the new Mass Effect sequel, and links a job posting for an associate technical director.

There's two job listings for an associate technical director at BioWare: One that's specifically for engine tech, and another for the base associate position. Both career pages require experience with Unreal Engine: "Full cycle AAA game development and experience with modern game engines (Unreal experience)".

Xbox consoles are so rare right now that even Microsoft is having a hard time getting a hold of them.

Microsoft's first-party 343 Industries team couldn't secure Xbox Series X consoles for the first Halo Championship event. Instead, the studio is using Xbox Series X devkits, which apparently are more plentiful than the retail units. 343i's Halo esports lead Tashi confirmed that pro Halo players are competing on Series X devkits instead of the retail models, however the devkits are identical to the real consumer-facing product; same specs, performance, etc.

New pictures from Halo pro UberNick confirm the devkits are being used in the Halo Championship Series in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Diablo 2 Resurrected is getting new runewords with the Patch 2.4 update, including the unreleased Plague and Pattern.

The unreleased runewords Plague and Pattern are coming to Diablo 2 Resurrected in the new v2.4 patch. These runewords were actually introduced in v1.10 way back in 2005 but were locked away in the source files, and Blizzard never actually released them in the final game.

As per the in-game files, the Plague and Pattern runewords aren't particularly impressive; Pattern is a lower-tier 3os claw RW with a cheap cost of Tal+Ort+Tir, but Plague is much more expensive and requires a high rune and one of the most versatile mid-runes in the game with a Cham+Fal+Um order. Both of the weapons don't seem very useful but Blizzard's D2R team says they will be "tweaked" for ladder play.

Ghostbusters star Ernie Hudson confirms a new game is in development: "It's definitely happening," Hudson says.

A new Ghostbusters video game is happening, and at least some of the cast will reprise their roles in the game including Dan Aykroyd (Ray Stantz) and Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddemore). The news was announced prematurely by Ernie Hudson at a Ghostbusters Afterlife press event, as recorded by YouTuber Countdown City Geeks.

"We're doing another video game. We're scheduling it now to do recording. I'm not sure [who's in it]...I know me and Danny [Aykroyd] but I'm not sure if Billy [Murray] will do anything on it," Hudson said.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot tells game developers that blockchain and NFTs are here to stay, reports from Kotaku indicate.

New reports suggest Ubisoft is going all-in on blockchain, NFTs, and new breakthrough technologies that gamers are adamantly against. The billion-dollar publisher has high ambitions of becoming a "key player" in the blockchain gaming space, potentially innovating (and monetizing) the play-to-earn market.

Ubisoft leadership recently held a meeting with employees to discuss its blockchain plans, sources tell Kotaku's Ethan Gach. Company CEO Yves Guillemot delivered vague and hazy explanations on how exactly the technology will work. The company is clearly experimenting, having toe-dipped into the NFT market with the massively controversial Ubisoft Quartz NFTs--a set of limited-edition digital cosmetics that gamers are attempting to resell at astronomical prices.

Epic Games is losing money by setting minimum guarantees on smaller-scale indie games, new information suggests.

New data from the Epic vs Apple trial seems to indicate Epic Games is losing money betting on smaller indie games. While the Epic Games Store has yet to turn a profit--and isn't expected to until 2023--the company typically recoups most of the cash it spends on exclusivity deals for big games like Borderlands 3.

Smaller-scale games are a different story. New data gleaned from the case suggests Epic is losing money on what it refers to as Tier 3 games (example: free-to-play RPG Dauntless). The company is spending more on its minimum guarantees--what it will pay out to developers regardless of how well a game sales--than it is earning on actual game revenues. Minimum guarantee losses made up 80% of tier 3 revenues for the quarter.

Turtle Rock Studios, the developer behind some of the most well-known FPS games ever made, are now 100% owned by Tencent.

Tencent has purchased yet another game studio. This time it's Turtle Rock, the team behind legendary games like Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead, Half-Life 2, and the more recent Back 4 Blood. Like most of the studios in Tencent's decentralized business approach, Turtle Rock will retain its autonomy and existing developers and leaders will remain in place.

Turtle Rock's president Steve Goldstein says Tencent's coffers and massive global reach will help supercharge its ambitious new game ideas. "Tencent's outstanding partners, global reach, deep knowledge of gaming and unprecedented support will help us create the kinds of ambitious games we dream of, while allowing us to retain our autonomy and independent spirit."

Sony may utilize blockchain ledgers to keep track of digital rights management for games on the PlayStation Network.

Sony Corp. is experimenting with new technologies like blockchain, AI, and machine learning to use across its segments. The company has already implemented AI and machine learning into its games division--Sony AI is helping with next-gen PS5 games--and use of blockchain could also be used to keep track of DRM, ownership/access rights, and to streamline and simplify royalty payments for creatives and game developers.

"Sony has gathered large amounts of data through our business in electronics as well as movies, music, video games, and finance. Using blockchain technology to circulate data in these fields, and skillfully combining data from various fields should create new value the likes of which we have never seen before. Such challenge is well within reach for the Sony Group," reads a post on the Sony Technology page.

The Embracer Group wants to buy card and board game giant Asmodee Digital for $3 billion.

Embracer has broken into the board game market with the proposed purchase of Asmodee, the company behind popular board games like Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, and Pandemic, as well as card games like Exploding Kittens, for $3 billion. The entertainment titan is offering 2.75 billion Euros total ($3 billion) for Asmodee, with 350 million Euros paid to principal shareholder PAI alongside 2.4 billion Euros in cash and debt refinancing. The buyout would be accreditive and boost operational EBITD by 30%.

This is nearly 3x what Embracer offered for Borderlands developer Gearbox Software, but to be fair, Asmodee has an impressive track record with over 1.1 billion Euros earned in FY21, 22 wholly-owned studios, over 300+ owned IPs, 970+ games, and sold 45 million board games in 2020. Asmodee has made games for leading labels like Pokemon, Harry Potter, Disney, Marvel, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars.

It's that time of the year again... festive events kicking off in games across the world, with the folks at Activision-Blizzard beginning Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone's new "Festive Fervor" event now live.

Warzone plays will be able to check out the new festive Fir Trees in Caldera -- they are marked on your map with a special tree icon. If you can find one and secure it, and stay within the zone then supply boxes will appear -- and continue to re-appear if you can hold the spot, where you'll get special holiday crates that could pack legendary items, and more.

Not only that but Krampus will be hunting you down on both Caldera and Rebirth Island, where you will feel something looking over your shoulder -- trust me, I did last night -- and there he is: Krampus is ready to take you out. Krampus will choose his targets at random, but he will hunt you down if you received any coal from the holiday crates. If you take him out, Krampus will drop a special permanent award.

STALKER 2 developer has cancelled all plans for its "STALKER metaverse" and "metaverse human" NFTs due to fan backlash.

Yesterday STALKER 2 developer GSC Game World announced they were creating the "world's first metahuman NFT," and would release limited-edition NFTs before the game's launch. The NFTs would be digital cosmetics that could be re-sold and auctioned off on a third-party marketplace. The metahuman concept would see consumers using crypto to buy rights to place their likeness on an in-game NPC.

This decision was nearly unanimously hated by the gaming community and led to massive controversy for the indie developer. GSC original defended their decision in a lengthy post (see below) that was later deleted. No developer wants controversy especially not an indie developer, so the team has scrapped its NFT ambitions.

Secretlab is no stranger to having some of the very biggest franchises in both the worlds of movies and gaming as their themed gaming chairs, with today seeing Secretlab introduce their exciting new The Witcher Edition gaming chair. Check it out:

This is also not the first time Secretlab has worked with developer CD PROJEKT RED on a gaming chair, with the Cyberpunk 2077 Edition gaming chair still one of my very favorite gaming chairs of all time. The new Secretlab The Witcher Edition series gaming chair draws heavily from the magical realm of The Witcher, something that started with the first short story of The Witcher back in 1986 by Andrzej Sapkowski.

Since then, we've seen it grow into a hugely successful franchise in the gaming world with The Witcher games by CD PROJEKT RED, and the also massively successful The Witcher on Netflix starring Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Zack Snyder's Justice League star Henry Cavill. Yeah, Superman...

Microsoft is expected to succeed its flagship Xbox Series X console with a beefier Xbox Series X Elite console, something we have a better look at thanks to some beautiful new renders from our friends at LetsGoDigital. Check it out:

The new Xbox Series X Elite console render was made by graphic designer Jermaine Smit aka Concept Creator and was developed in collaboration with Phone Industry. The render has some awesome LED lighting on both sides of the Xbox Series X Elite console, with a large power button and Xbox logo -- on the left, we have the Blu-ray slot, an eject button, and 4 x USB ports.

On the back we have 6 ports: for power, an Ethernet power, 2 x USB 3.1 ports, and 1 x HDMI 2.1 connector that is finished up with an expansion port for storage. Ventilation wise the faster flagship Xbox Series X Elite console will run hotter, so ventilation is taken care of with one on the top, and both sides as well as the back with ventilation holes that make sure under those all-day, all-night gaming sessions that your Xbox Series X Elite console runs cool.

CD Projekt is prepared to pay out $1.85 million to settle a class-action securities fraud lawsuit.

CD Projekt Group has reached a settlement agreement with investors in its securities fraud lawsuit. Back in 2020, four investors took their securities lawsuits against CD Projekt Group to court regarding significant stock value drops. The lawsuit alleges CD Projekt willfully withheld information on Cyberpunk 2077's performance, and the game's controversy caused share values to plummet, thus materially harming shareholders.

The four lawsuits were combined into one, and based on previous reports, plaintiff counsel was encouraging investors that had lost more than $100,000 to join the case. This means that investors may have lost at least $400,000 during the share drop period. The $1.85 million settlement will be used to pay for attorney fees, damages, and other compensation.

Twitch co-founder Justin Kan opens his own gaming NFT marketplace, and says many game developers are interested in using NFTs in their games.

The NFT craze is upon us. While it's still the early Wild West days of fluctuating values and over-saturated markets where everyone's trying to cash out, major players like Ubisoft are throwing their hat into the ring with its new Quartz NFTs. Other publishers like EA, Square Enix. and SEGA are also interested in play-to-earn blockchain gaming. Why not? NFTs are artificially-scarce digital cosmetics that can be auctioned off for unlimited prices--players would literally do the buying and selling while publishers get a cut of each purchase.

According to Twitch founder Justin Kan, the new wave of blockchain-based monetization is just beginning. Lots of game-makers are interested in NFTs. Again, why wouldn't they be? After all, Peter Molyneux's dev studio had made over $42 million from selling "limited edition" digital land plots. This could prove to be an exciting new frontier for revenue.