Gaming - Page 457

Netflix may be producing a TV show based on BioWare's hit fantasy Dragon Age series, and it's possible it will tie into the new sequel game.

Sources tell website Giant Freakin' Robot that a new Dragon Age series is in development at Netflix. There's no details on setting, scope, production, or whether or not it'll be live action, CGI, or animated. Netflix has built quite the video game adaptation repertoire with shows like The Witcher and Castlevania, and more shows are on the way including Captain Laserhawk, a series based on Far Cry Blood Dragon, a new Splinter Cell series, and a new Castlevania spin-off starring Richter Belmont.

As for Dragon Age 4, EA has officially said not to expect it before its FY23 timeline, which ends on March 31, 2023. Sources tell Venture Beat that Dragon Age 4 may release in 2023, possibly later than the March cutoff date. This would put DA4 in EA's FY24 period. It's possible this new Netflix series could lead up to Dragon Age 4 and help fill in the story gaps between Inquisition and the new game.

343i just posted up full schematics for Halo Infinite's preview maps to show players where specific weapons are located.

Halo PVP is all about controlling power weapons. If your team has a full fleet of BRs you probably won't lose. Halo Infinite's weapon spawns aren't as straightforward as other games, though, because the primary guns A) spawn on walls and B) rotate in and out. For example, the Commando and Battle Rifle typically rotate back and forth. The power weapons spawn in a specific marked location and are usually on cooldowns.

This can make Infinite a confusing and jarring experience. Not knowing where power weapons are is always a disadvantage in Halo, but it's especially true here now that the spawns are staggered. Luckily 343i has you covered.

Here's a closer look at Grand Theft Auto franchise sales ahead of Take-Two Interactive's upcoming Q1 FY22 earnings call.

Grand Theft Auto is the fifth best-selling franchise in the games industry with 345 million total sales. Grand Theft Auto V makes up 42% of total franchise sales with an astronomical 145 million units shipped worldwide.

I've compiled data from Take-Two earnings call transcripts since Grand Theft Auto V's launch in 2013 (which coincides with the company's FY2014 period). The data isn't perfect and contains some estimates based on previous sales trends.

A new Take-Two Interactive SEC filing highlights game sales of its most popular franchises, confirming big numbers for IPs like Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and NBA 2K.

Take-Two recently put out a briefing to help prepare shareholders for the company's annual voting session. The presentation has a quick recap on franchise/game sales that adds perspective to the publisher's biggest tentpole releases. According to the numbers, Grand Theft Auto is now at 345 million (GTA V makes up 145 million alone) and the annual NBA 2K sports franchise is at a staggering 111 million. Red Dead Redemption is also at 60 million units.

Since we already made a graph on GTA V's astronomical sales growth, I decided to look at quarter-over-quarter sales of Red Dead Redemption 2. The results are pretty impressive. The game has managed to sell-in 37 million units since its launch in October 2018. Most of the sales occurred in the Q3 launch period with 23 million units sold, but RDR2 managed to push 6 million sales in its second year, and 5 million sales in its third year.

A look at Halo Infinite's PC settings shows 343 Industries is taking the platform very seriously.

Halo Infinite's PC version has a myriad of performance toggles, graphics tweaks, and visual adjustments in its settings menu. The game has some nifty features like built-in FPS and network latency overlays, as well as a FOV slider, and gamers can even change the thickness of gun reticles too (very useful for precise shots).

The graphics options are extremely robust. PC gamers can adjust presets for nearly everything in the game, including overall textures, sky quality, ground textures, anti-aliasing, texture filtering, depth of field, reflections--the works. Thankfully you can also turn off all the screen effects like motion blur, speed lines, and the chromatic aberration that happens in the HUD during explosions.

The Coalition flexes the Xbox Series X's raw console power and pushes the 12TFLOP RDNA 2 GPU and Zen 2 CPU to its limits.

Gears of War developer The Coalition has been setting benchmarks on the Xbox Series X since the get-go. Before the system launched, the devs managed to get Gears 5 running at Ultra PC equivalent presets on the Series X with Unreal Engine 4, complete with new global illumination effects. Now they're setting sights on Epic's new potent Unreal Engine 5.

In its recent Alpha Point tech demo, The Coalition managed to get 100 million+ triangles running flawlessly on the Series X with real-time light and reflections thanks to Unreal Engine 5's new toolsets. The results deliver an incredible look at the potential of next-gen gaming. The devs are careful to say Alpha Point does not represent any commercial product; it's merely an illustration on what's possible on the Xbox Series X. And things are still very early. Microsoft's internal first-party teams are busily testing, experimenting, and iterating on console software, SDKs, and games engines in exciting ways to help redefine what's possible on the Series X.

Horizon Forbidden West has been delayed to early 2022, sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

Sony and developer Guerrilla Games has apparently decided to push back one of the year's biggest PlayStation exclusives. Sources say Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel to 2017's Horizon Zero Dawn, will no longer meet its 2021 release slate. The game is instead being delayed to early 2022, and it's possible the game will launch before Sony's fiscal year ends on March 31, 2022.

The sequel is a much more ambitious game and features major innovations over the original including free climbing, a grappling hook, and even a glider for open-world exploration. It will also fully leverage the PS5's capabilities with high-end visuals and instant loading times.

The Steam Deck may not be abandoned like the ill-fated Steam Machines or Steam Controller--Valve could make new successors to its handheld-PC hybrid.

Valve is open to the possibility of making new Steam Decks with better specs and upgrades in the future, not unlike the jump from a 3DS to a Switch. The system's future depends on one thing: Sales. If the Steam Deck sells enough units and garners enough demand, then Valve might continue making new models similar to its bold vision for VR.

"We look at this as just a new category of device in the PC space. And assuming that customers agree with us that this is a good idea, we expect not only to follow up in the future with more iterations ourselves, but also for other manufacturers to want to participate in the space," hardware designer Greg Coomer tells IGN.

We take a look at the growth of Capcom's top five best-selling franchise to get a better perspective of the games company.

Capcom just reported record Q1 earnings with an all-time high of 48 billion yen in sales, up over 100% from last year. Game sales from big franchises like Resident Evil and Monster Hunter were the major driver; Resident Evil Village alone made up 33% of the 13.3 million games sold during Q1'21.

While Capcom does have a diversified lineup of games, the majority of its yearly sales are propped up by tentpole franchises. The same is true for the likes of Take-Two, Ubisoft, EA, and Activision-Blizzard, who each have heavy-hitters like NBA 2K, Assassin's Creed, FIFA, and Call of Duty.

I hate writing these stories, but sometimes a torch needs to be shined into the darkness -- Brazilian Fortnite streamer Raulino de Oliveira Maciel aka "RaulZito" has been arrested, allegedly raping two children.

The arrest was performed by the Police of Child and Adolescent Victims after one of the victim's mothers reached out to authorities about it. The mother said in the police report that RaulZito had sexually abused her son in February and then again in May 2021, while another report from another child claims the Fortnite streamer also abused him, too.

RaulZito reportedly used his decently sized reach online -- with 200K+ followers on Instagram, 118K+ followers on Twitch, and 144K+ followers on YouTube -- to get in contact with children between the ages of 10 and 14 years old.

PlayStation 5's new v2.0-04.00.00 beta firmware is the largest update yet that makes big changes to the console's functionality and UI.

Sony is currently testing a new PS5 update that enables the console's expansion slot, which finally lets gamers expand their storage space with a compatible PCIe 4.0 SSD. There's a lot more to the update though, including some awesome quality-of-life improvements.

Sony released a huge list of patch notes for the beta update that confirms some great UI changes are coming. At the top of the list are big changes to trophy viewing, how your installed games are shown in the UI, being able to customize and view different things in the Game Base sub-menu, and you can even turn off the annoying screenshot confirmation indicator (about time!).

Like most news on Grand Theft Auto 6, the recent amusement park and island game maps are totally bogus.

There's been all sorts of GTA 6 rumors flying around, like the older Project Americas (confirmed fake) and a myriad of maps showing different landmasses. A bit ago one purported GTA 6 map caused a stir in the community, appearing to show an in-game amusement park called Fred's Fun World complete with double entendres matching Rockstar's inappropriate style.

Then an island map showed up with on-screen markers. Both of these are 100% fake and the creator has fessed up and even put out a video showing how he did it.

The PlayStation 5 is officially the fastest-selling console in the history of the games industry.

Sony confirms the PS5 has sold through over 10 million units worldwide to date, making it the quickest-selling PlayStation console and video games system of all time. Sony announced the news yesterday, saying the PlayStation 5 managed to move more than 10 million units as of July 18, beating the PS4's previous record. This number would be higher if Sony had more PS5 units available.

These numbers mean the PlayStation 5 is rapidly approaching the PS Vita's 16 million sales, and should dethrone the handheld throughout the fiscal year.

Resident Evil Village has now sold over 4.5 million copies in two months' time, Capcom today announced.

Capcom kicked off its Q1 2021 fiscal year with explosive results, earning a record 48.23 billion yen (roughly $440 million) in revenues driven by strong game sales. The company sold 13.3 million games during the quarter, and hits like Resident Evil Village accounted for about 33% of total sales. Capcom confirms their latest monster mashup has sold more than 4.5 million copies from launch on May 7 through June 30, 2021.

"In this business segment, the latest title in the Company's flagship series Resident Evil Village (for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC) was released in May; supported by steady popularity, the title performed well with shipments exceeding 4.5 million units worldwide after garnering acclaim for its immersive gameplay driven by the synergies between its beautiful graphics and horror elements," Capcom wrote in its earnings report.

Sony confirms its latest acquisition of Nixxes Software was made specifically to help bring more PlayStation exclusives to PC.

Earlier this month Sony made one of its most important studio acquisitions with Nixxes Software, a developer with extensive experience porting console games to PC. The buyout is a strategic step that reflects Sony's new push into the PC market, with big-name PlayStation exclusives like Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, and soon Uncharted 4 coming to Steam.

Now in a recent interview with Famitsu, Sony officially confirms what we already knew: It bought Nixxes to mostly help port existing PS4 games over to PC to help maximize and diversify revenue streams.

Turtle Rock Studios has unleashed an exciting new trailer for Back 4 Blood, covering what you can expect in the Open Beta of the game which kicks off next week. Check it out:

The new Back 4 Blood trailer teases the new Swarm PvP mode, co-op gameplay which I can't wait for -- and more. Back 4 Blood will also have support for NVIDIA's game-changing DLSS technology, which will provide some huge performance gains across the board at all resolutions and detail levels.

As for the game, Back 4 Blood launches on October 12 for the PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, and the Xbox One.

343 Industries officially confirms Halo Infinite will be the first game that ships without assassinations in multiplayer.

Halo Infinite will launch in Holiday 2021 with two major changes: free-to-play multiplayer, and no assassinations. Every mainline Halo game to date has featured one-hit kills if you melee someone in the back, and Reach even added a satisfying animation to assassinations. Those will come to Infinite post-launch.

"Assassinations aren't in for launch," Halo Infinite multiplayer lead Tom French said in a recent stream.

Halo Infinite's first-ever technical preview might get actual PVP chaos...but only if you play enough matches.

Halo Infinite's upcoming technical test kicks off tomorrow, but it won't have PVP at the start. The preview will focus on AI and bots first, but if 343 Industries gets enough data, they could switch on 4v4 team-based arena slayer by Sunday.

"We're thinking about turning on some classic slayer arena as well by the end of the weekend I believe," Ske7ch said in a recent Halo Infinite stream.

Blizzard employees continue with their walkout plans in protest to recent abuse allegations against the billion-dollar games-maker.

Today Blizzard workers announced they had planned to commence a walk-out strike at the company's Irvine campus at 10AM PST. The strike is ongoing, and dozens of supporters have shown up with signs and positive messages to encourage developers.

Earlier this morning strike organizers sent a message to Axios reporter Megan Farokhmanesh detailing their demands and confirming the walkout. The response comes after Activision-Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick issued an official statement on the abuse allegations.

Halo Infinite's first beta testing phase will begin Thursday, July 29, 343i has confirmed.

343i is starting to send out Halo Infinite beta test invites on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The first testing phase will be a four-day technical preview exclusively focused on bots and AI and will run from July 29 - August 1. PVP will not be included in this test. We received an invite so expect lots of screenshots and footage when the test goes live.

The current test is 100% full and over 100,000 users have been invited. Anyone interested in playtesting Halo Infinite's future flights will need to be a Halo Insider, so be sure to sign up today and fully complete your profile.