Gaming - Page 433

Grand Theft Auto 6 is reportedly in "development hell" according to fresh rumors, which also state that GTA 6 development restarted once Dan Houser left Rockstar Games in 2020.

GTA 6 had already gone through changes before Houser left, with the story of GTA 6 changing before he left and that development on GTA 6 had restarted when he left -- and that Houser leaving Rockstar is a "direct consequence" of that says Chris from Rockstar Mag.

The post on NeoGAF continues, saying that Rockstar cannot provide any information on GTA 6 -- noting the original announcement for Grand Theft Auto 6 was meant for 2020 -- because "they changed the story and other game elements too many times in 2019, so don't count on something related to GTA VI soon. This is the most chaotic project R * has managed to date. More than RDR 1 and GTA IV. He didn't want to develop but that's not a good sign".

A new job listing at id Software hints that a new Doom or Quake game is currently in development.

id Software's Senior Technical Animator job listing is pretty interesting and might give away what the studio is working on next. id is specifically looking for an animator that specializes in hair and cloth physics in the Havok games engine for a "long-running iconic action FPS series."

id uses Havok for its games--Doom Eternal, RAGE 2, and even Quake Champions--and the specific mentions of hair and cloth physics might lean towards the rumored female protagonist starring in the unconfirmed Quake reboot that's reportedly in development.

A used copy of Animal Crossing New Horizons is only $10 right now at Gamestop.

Animal Crossing New Horizons has been significantly discounted down to $9.99 over at Gamestop. Granted this is a used copy, but it sure beats the always-premium pricing Nintendo permanently affixes to its first-party games. You'd think since the game has pretty much hit peak sales performance that Nintendo would lower the price to move more units. It worked for Capcom--they've reported 8 consecutive years of operating profit growth because they're flexible with pricing.

The reality is Animal Crossing is already a sales revenue monster. In little over a year, New Horizons has amassed a gargantuan 33 million copies sold. It's by far and away the second best-selling game on the Switch, and it managed to sell 1 million copies per week for many months in a row.

MachineGames' next game may have monetized live services similar to those found in Wolfenstein Youngblood.

It looks like MachineGames is doubling-down on monetization (likely at the behest of Bethesda and its new parent company, Microsoft, who is known for live services). The developer is currently hiring a Monetization and Live Designer who will help establish in-game economies for a new project. The listing says the designer will work with teams to help build a new game from the ground up, meaning the project is being made with monetization in mind.

CD Projekt RED has updated its Cyberpunk 2077 content roadmap to reflect new content delays.

Cyberpunk 2077 isn't getting any new content for the rest of 2021. The developers quietly confirmed the news in a commitment timeline update which shows Patch 1.3 as the last major patch of 2021. To date CD Projekt RED has released 11 updates consisting of hotfixes and major game-changing patches that have fixed a multitude of bugs and memory issues on consoles.

The game's free anticipated next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X/S version has also been delayed to 2022, and it's likely these two are related. Also remember that CDPR is working on multiple new projects including Cyberpunk 2077's multiplayer mode and a new AAA title that's set in the Witcher universe. The next-gen version of Witcher 3 has also been pushed back as far as mid-year 2022.

Diablo 2 Resurrected servers are still a mess and Blizzard is coming up with fixes...but players won't like them.

Blizzard today outlined more details on its server fixes for Diablo 2 Resurrected, confirming the game will get its own PTR (Public Test Realm) to help beta test upcoming updates and patches. Starting next week, Blizzard is making a massive change to how D2's online servers work.

"Next week, our internal teams will begin testing a significant change by having saves occur more often on the regional end, rather than global, in hopes of alleviating some database stress. Once our internal load testing is complete, we will put up a PTR server with this fix to get some real-world testing before rolling out to the live game."

Ex-Visceral Games and Naughty Dog visionary Amy Hennig is working on a new Marvel game, and it sounds absolutely huge.

Marvel has announced they have conscripted Skydance New Media to make a new "narrative-driven, blockbuster action-adventure game" set in one of its franchises. Skydance's game division is led by Amy Hennig, who has worked on some of the biggest games in the industry including Uncharted 1-3 and the ill-fated Project Ragtag Star Wars bounty hunter game for Visceral Games (before the studio was shut down in 2017 and the game was cancelled, of course).

The new Marvel game is set in an unspecified franchise, but the press release confirms it will be a 100% original storyline. Job listings also confirm it's a singleplayer game made in Unreal Engine. The developers have free reign to create their own vision in the property with a new fresh take on the Marvel universe. It's possible the game could be multi-perspective, and Hennig says Skydance will incorporate the "humanity, complexity, and humor" of distinct Marvel heroes.

Capcom reiterates its commitment to PC gaming, says the platform is a big part of its new aggressive push into digital markets.

Capcom's latest integrated report clearly explains its game plan. The company is doubling-down on digital gaming and wants to hit 50 million games sold per year--and eventually 100 million. There's a clear roadmap to making this happen and PC gaming is a big part of it.

In the report, Capcom says it has designated PC as a "priority platform." And rightly so, considering PC gaming is practically all-digital. Capcom says that PC gaming has helped it release games across 200 countries and massively expand its reach--think of PC as a gateway, and the bridge being digital platforms like Steam, where gamers are funneling across the bridge and buying games at the gate.

Capcom's latest integrated report shows just how much the company has grown over the last two decades.

Capcom's digital business plan is paying off big. The digital model has led to eight consecutive years of operating profit growth driven by efforts like expansion into emerging worldwide markets, bringing games to the digital-focused PC platform, timed sales, and more engagement-driven experiences in its games.

The company's recent metrics speak volumes and clearly illustrate just how much Capcom has grown over the years, and it's all because of its forward-thinking adaptation to growing markets. Capcom has embraced worldwide expansion in a way that sees its games being carried to non-traditional markets in an effort to maximize sales reach. The plan is working very well.

Capcom wants to sell 100 million games every year, and outlines its plan to make it happen in the near future.

Capcom is on a roll. Over the last decade the Japanese games-maker has made a radical shift towards digital. The results have paid off with eight consecutive years of record operating profit and over 220% in net income growth. Now the company wants more.

In a recent integrated report, Capcom has set an ambitions goal for itself: 100 million games sold every year. For reference, Capcom sold 30 million games last year and expects to sell 32 million games this year with an 82% digital ratio. Capcom makes it clear that digital is the key to achieving its lofty goal.

Ubisoft promises to support its new Avatar game with multiple years of post-launch content, including premium paid DLC, expansions, and more.

The new Avatar Frontiers of Pandora game coming in 2022 will have a long lifespan that stretches across years, Ubisoft has confirmed.

"For Fiscal '23 we have a very exciting lineup, a big lineup on the premium and free-to-play side. On the premium lineup side, as you know Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is a big game next to the highly-awaited movie. The development is progressing well and is a beautiful world delivered by the Snowdrop engine.That will be a very long game in terms of content delivered over many years," Ubisoft CFO Frederick Duguet said in a recent Q2 earnings call.

Ubisoft says it wants to be a key player in blockchain gaming, and sees lots of potential for play-to-earn mechanics.

Ubisoft is just one of the many publishers looking into blockchain (Square Enix and EA are also doing it). The decentralized network affords unique opportunities for gaming including play-to-earn, a nebulous concept that could give out pieces of cryptocurrency in exchange for playing a game.

So how will this work exactly? Ubisoft is vague on details, but says blockchain is "very attractive for the long term" and that they're interested in creating ne digital economies. It's likely blockchain will offer a new form of monetization as we predicted back in 2018.

Ubisoft gives slightly more details about its new never-ending Assassin's Creed Infinity game.

The next Assassin's Creed game is called Infinity, and it's rumored to be a huge live game that's more of a platform versus a standalone release. Now Ubisoft confirms Infinity won't be a free-to-play experience but instead will be a paid, premium game similar to other mainline titles.

"Infinity will not be a free-to-play. This game is going to have a lot of narrative elements in it. It's going to be a very innovative game but it will have what players already love in other Assassin's Creed games right from the start," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said in a recent Q2'22 earnings call.

Activision's new texture delivery technology will help shrink monstrous Call of Duty install sizes.

Call of Duty games are absolutely huge. Every annual release commands over 100GB, and Warzone is even beyond that. Considering the PS5 only has 667GB of space and the Series X has 802GB, it behooves publishers to shrink their games or be eliminated from the premium SSD space. That's what's happening over at Activision.

"New on-demand texture streaming tech expected to save up to 30%-50%+ on next-gen console and PC hard drive disk space," the official Call of Duty Twitter account says.

The TACMAP, one of the best new features of Halo Infinite, is being developed by the same studio who made Halo 5's Forge mode.

Halo Infinite's TACMAP transforms the game from a linear FPS into something more like Far Cry. Now gamers have an in-game map with icons, missions, and high-end visual topography they can use to trace out their path through Zeta Halo. It's the single most important new feature of Halo Infinite's campaign and one that's instrumental to the wide open-world scope of the game.

Apparently the feature was also developed by SkyBox Labs, the same team that brought Halo 5's Forge mode to life. SkyBox is also co-developing other portions of the game, too.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla isn't even a year old yet and it's already one of Ubisoft's best-earning games of all time.

Today Ubisoft announced Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the second-most profitable video game in the company's 35-year lifespan. That's a pretty huge milestone for a game that's not even a year old. While Ubisoft predictably didn't give exact sales figures or revenues for Valhalla, it did say the game is responsible for driving strong Q2 earnings.

Call of Duty: Warzone is about to go through its biggest change yet, with the introduction of Warzone Pacific. Warzone Pacific is the new name of the big update for Warzone (which is now Warzone Pacific) with a brand new map that the developer says is "built on the learnings from the community" and is launching with Season One.

The new map for Warzone Pacific is Caldera, and will have the new RICOCHET Anti-Cheat included with its kernel-level driver. Now that the business end of the situation is done, Warzone Pacific will have lush forests and rocky crags, with white sand beaches and mysterious ruins for you to explore -- and annihilate other players. There's even a dormant volcano in Caldera, with Activision promising over 200 other points of interest.

One of the biggest things I love to see from the developer is that they've listened to the community and built Caldera around 2 years of research from that feedback. Warzone Pacific will launch formally as part of Vanguard's first season of content, and is built on the same technology and graphics engine that Call of Duty: Vanguard is built on. Warzone Pacific is fully optimized for cross-play, cross-progression, and has cross-gen console support as well.

Sony has $14 billion left to spend on strategic acquisitions from now until March 2024.

In its recent Q2 earnings report, Sony pledged to "aggressively invest" in games development to help further growth of its $25 billion games empire. In that same presentation, it also confirmed it has $14 billion in funds left to spend on strategic acquisitions from now until FY23 (ends March 31, 2024).

Every three years Sony devises what it calls Mid-Range Plans. At these meetings, shareholders and executives decide specific growth vectors for the company. A budget is made to pay for things like like strategic acquisitions and capital expenditures to grow the business.

Sony has made a new branch to oversee its PC gaming efforts called PlayStation PC LLC.

Sony is going all-in on PC gaming. Before now, Sony's PlayStation Mobile LLC division was responsible for publishing PlayStation games on PC. Now that's being handled by a dedicated PC branch called PlayStation PC LLC. Documents show that the company was incorporated back in April 2021.

All of Sony's games on Steam are now listed as being published by PlayStation PC LLC.

Sony's PlayStation division delivers record Q2 sales on the back of strong hardware, software, and FX tailwinds.

Sony's latest Q2 FY2021 earnings report showed a marked increase in segment sales due to strong FX tailwinds. The exchange rate for Q2 was up 3.67% with a rate of $1 USD = 110.1 yen, a boost that benefited Sony tremendously.

The Games and Network Services (G&NS) segment, which includes the PlayStation brand, delivered record Q2 revenues of 645.43 billion yen ($5.862 billion) as compared to 506.63 billion yen ($4.77 billion) in Q2'20, which had a 106.2 yen-to-USD exchange rate. FX boosts represented 27% of the period's 138.8 billion yen year-over-year increase.