Gaming - Page 462

Sony Corp has filed a new Form 6-K outlining the progress for its annual share repurchase plan worth $1.8 billion.

Sony's board of directors recently approved a buyback of up to 25 million common stock in an effort to help bolster stock value and boost shareholder returns. Sony plans to spend 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion) on stock throughout its Fiscal Year 2021 timeline (April 2021-2022). This marks the second and major repurchase program since 2019, and a recent filing shows the current status of the initiative.

The tech giant repurchased 722,800 common stock in June 2021 for 7.4 billion yen ($66.8 million), which comprises less than 3% of the total share repurchases. Sony currently has a total of 1.28 billion shares issued in both common and treasury stocks.

RTS fans rejoice: Today SEGA and Relic Entertainment announced Company of Heroes 3, a new sequel set in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II with a bunch of new enhancements.

With Company of Heroes 3, Relic promises to deliver the "ultimate package of action, tactics and strategy." The chaotic RTS is due out in the second half of 2022 on PC and features a dynamic campaign map that reacts to your decisions in and outside of battle, with a shifting narrative that will change based on your actions. Relic says this new campaign map also features a new layer of verticality with mountainous regions and stacked environments set across Italy to allow for height advantages in battle.

One of the biggest new features is the Tactical Pause system, which allows players to freeze frame the action and plan their next moves. Relic has also updated its AI features to make battles more challenging and the game is specifically optimized for DirectX 12 as well as multi-core CPUs.

Elon Musk has just tweeted out a meme that shows a toddler car seat and a traditional, cheap racing car-inspired gaming seat saying that they are all the same.

Instantly, the price of DOGE went up with bots buying up Dogecoin with Musk's tweet -- secondly, within a single minute Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan tweeted, saying "Right - maybe we should make a toddler car seat too". We all know how it goes, Razer says or unveils something that we all think is stupidly overkill or insane -- like a Razer toaster, and then they do it.

So I guess we now live in a timeline where Razer could eventually release a toddler car seat... and maybe Musk will collaborate with Razer on a Tesla-inspired gaming chair? I mean, that would be freaking awesome and it's not something too out of the question.

Cooler Master has just unveiled the ultimate gaming setup with the introduction of the multi-purpose, semi-enclosed workstation for gamers and professionals... and I need it in my life, ASAP.

The new Cooler Master ORB X GamePod was built through community-driven innovation and collaboration, with a futuristic design, hardware and software integration, and supports next-gen VR, AR and haptics that'll deliver gaming experiences unlike anything else you've experienced in your home.

Cooler Master supports up to 3 x 27-inch monitors, or a single huge 49-inch monitor depending on your taste. There's built-in 2.1-channel sound with spatial audio support, a hidden compartment with a built-in sliding tray to easily install and house your gaming PC or next-gen console.

EA has adjusted its Dual Entitlement program to only cover $99.99 versions of its games, not its standard $59.99 versions.

Last year, EA announced Dual Entitlement, an alternative to Xbox's Smart Delivery program that offered free next-gen upgrades. If you bought the standard $59.99 versions of Madden NFL 21 or FIFA 21 on PS4 or Xbox One, you could download a copy of the next-gen version for free.

Now EA is adjusting its Dual Entitlement program to be exclusive to the $99.99 SKUs of its new games. FIFA 22, Madden NFL 22, and Battlefield 2042 all have $99.99 cross-gen bundles. Dual Entitlement is no longer offered with the base $59.99 standard editions.

With FIFA 22, Electronic Arts has sent a clear message that free next-gen upgrades are over, and $69.99 is the new pricing of its mainline games.

FIFA 22 is the latest EA game to cost $69.99 on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles, solidifying the publisher's move towards a more premium pricing scheme. Like Madden NFL 22 and Battlefield 2042, the annual soccer game won't have a free next-gen upgrade. Instead, gamers can get both the PS4 and PS5 version for $99.99, which has become par for the course ever since NBA 2K21's release.

Next-gen versions will also have exclusive features, modes, and content not available on PS4 or Xbox One to help justify the price hike. Battlefield 2042, for example, has a 128-player Conquest/Breakout mode that's exclusive to newer hardware, whereas PS4 and Xbox One are locked to 32v32 play. Madden NFL 22's new dynamic gameplay is also locked behind new systems, and FIFA 22's advanced machine learning-powered animations can only be utilized on PS5 and Series X/S thanks to their ML capabilities.

EA's years-long AI and machine learning research is starting to push its games to the next level.

EA is using advanced AI and ML in all of its new games, including Battlefield 2042 with its 128-player multiplayer and AI lobbies, Madden 22's new dynamic gameplay features, and now with FIFA 22.

The publisher recently announced FIFA 22 will use a powerful ML Flow algorithm that trains 8.7 million frames of real-time motion capture footage. 22 soccer pros wore high-end Xsens motion suits to completely and totally capture every movement in FIFA 22's new 11v11 mode. The footage is then uploaded to a server and trained by ML Flow and sent back to the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 as inferenced data.

The world thought that the most expensive video game ever sold at an auction was a copy of 1987's The Legend of Zelda, but now the title has been taken by another video game.

Two days before the title was snapped up by another video game, Heritage Auctions held an auction for 1987's The Legend of Zelda, which ended up selling for a ridiculous $870,000. The sale of the sealed The Legend of Zelda surpassed the previous record holder that was set three months prior. The previous record-holder was a rare, sealed copy of Super Mario Bros that sold for $660,000.

Now, both of those records have been smashed as Heritage Auctions hosted an auction for a sealed copy of Super Mario 64 that sold for $1.56 million. The N64 copy of Super Mario 64 included a special or rare print of the game that featured an uncommon Wata Games rating of 9.8 out of 10. If you are interested in checking out the game for yourself, images have been included below. If you want to see the auction website for the game, check out this link here.

Square Enix has just released a benchmark for Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker on the PC, which will be released on November 23 not just for the PC but also the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 consoles.

You will need the base Final Fantasy XIV game for the new Endwalker expansion, which has moderate PC system requirements. Square Enix is asking for Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 64-bit, an Intel Core i5 processor or better, just 4GB of system RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 or AMD Radeon R7 260X or better.

Those requirements aren't too bad at all, but you'll need a hefty 80GB of storage for Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker.

New job listings hint that id Software's next big first-person shooter will skip PS4 and Xbox One console gens.

Like practically every other developer in the industry, id Software is currently hiring a bunch of roles to work on new games. News of the openings was passed around by game devs on Twitter, and most of the postings on ZeniMax's job board don't give many clues on what to expect. Except for two.

Job listings for a UI Programmer and Senior Graphics Programmer specifically call for interested candidates who want to "work on legendary id games for PC and next-generation console systems."

Infinity Ward is currently hiring a bunch of developers for its next big Call of Duty game, and job listings confirm COD 2022 will have singleplayer and co-op modes.

Unlike Battlefield 2042, which will ship without a campaign for the first time in years, the Call of Duty franchise will keep its signature three-part campaign, co-op, and multiplayer combo intact for next year's release. Recent job listings from Infinity Ward show that Call of Duty 2022 are very likely to have both story-driven parts to complement the frenetic live multiplayer.

Infinity Ward is currently hiring two roles that outright mention both modes: a singleplayer game designer and a level designer for singleplayer and co-operative play.

Call of Duty former professional and Warzone stream "MuTeX" has been accused of cheating, so he sets up an elaborate rig to prove he's not. The streamer used 5 separate cameras, just to prove he wasn't hacking.

MuTeX hosted a stream on July 7 where he accidentally showed his desktop during the stream, where people spotted that he had Cronus software installed. What is Cronus? It's a physical piece of hardware that requires installation, but then you can use the software to turn on macros, scripts, and tweak the inputs on the controller.

For hackers, Cronus can let cheaters make their buttons go into rapid-fire mode, improved recoil, aiming, and more.

A bit ago gamers spotted three Bloober Team projects on the European Commission website, and fans speculated one of them could be the new Silent Hill game. Bloober Team steps in to shoot down the rumors.

As per Bloober Team's website, the studio applied for (and received) European Commission grants for three games: H20, Dum Spiro, and Black. H20 turned out to be Layers of Fear 2, and the other two have nothing to do with the rumored Silent Hill project. Bloober has recently teamed up with Konami to make an unannounced game that's very likely to be Silent Hill.

Now the developer steps in to clarify the two mystery projects. Dum Spiro is no longer in active development--Bloober says it's incredibly tough to market something like that, and rightly so, given its controversial focus on WWII ghettos. Black is still in development but it's quite different than the initial project outlined in the grant.

All of gaming's major players are investing into online live-driven games--Sony, Take-Two, Microsoft, Activision-Blizzard, EA, and of course Ubisoft all earn billions from live games. Having transformed its business with digital monetization, Ubisoft in particular wants to double-down on live services for its upcoming games.

Ubisoft's latest 2021 annual report paints a clear picture of the company's future. Ubisoft promises to focus strongly on long-term player engagement using live services, and says that online multiplayer and live content will be instrumental in shaping its games over the next few years. This is the direct thinking that led to projects like Assassin's Creed Infinity, an online platform with multiple games that change over time, to be born.

"Over the coming years, Ubisoft will benefit from numerous solid drivers of growth with, in particular, significant opportunities in the digital sector generated by the extension of the multi-player and social gaming experience and by even greater integration of Live services," the report states.

Halo looked a lot different as a third-person shooter back in 1999.

Halo co-created Marcus Lehto just shared new footage of Halo: Combat Evolved's old-school 1999 Macworld build, showing fans what the pivotal shooter looked like 22 years ago. Lehto's short clip gives a closer look at the Forerunner facility shown off during the Macworld demo as well as some footage of Master Chief's sword--yes, Halo CE almost had a carbon sword-knife with a special sheathe on Spartan 117's back.

The Forerunner interiors haven't changed all that much, and die-hard Bungie fans will notice the health/shield UI indicator is a Marathon symbol (This is also seen throughout Halo, including Guilty Spark). The footage also shows a second tank called the Husk, which sits alongside the devastating Scorpion tank that shipped in the final build.

CD Projekt RED plans to tie The Witcher 3 next-gen edition with the Netflix TV series.

During WitcherCon, CD Projekt confirmed the new next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will have items and content from the Netflix series. The devs specifically mentioned armor, although none was shown, we should expect the kind of studded black leather that Henry Cavill wore in the show (fun fact, Cavill frequently broke his armor because he was getting too ripped and the leatherworkers couldn't always keep up with his gains).

The content will be 100% free DLC so don't expect any huge new expansions or questlines. Mostly it should be cosmetics and other small changes that nod to the Netflix television show. The next-gen version will be free for all existing PS4 and Xbox One owners with substantial upgrades like faster loading times, higher frame rates, and boosted resolution.

Death Stranding's new director's cut will apparently be the first PlayStation 5 game to support ultrawide 32:9 monitors.

Death Stranding director's cut is coming to PS5 on September 24 with two modes: a performance mode with upscaled 4K at 60FPS, or native 4K. Both of these feature ultrawide and HDR support. The other P5 optimizations include ultra-fast loading and haptic feedback via the DualSense controller.

The price is a stark contrast to Ghost of Tsushima's $69.99 director's cut. Instead, Sony and Kojima Productions is charging a more reasonable price and upgrade cost. PS4 owners can upgrade to the PS5 version for $10. Standard edition is $49.99, and the digital deluxe edition is $59.99.

Earnings season is almost here, and whether you're an investor or curious gamer, here's a calendar to help you schedule things out.

Gaming's biggest companies are set to announce their respective quarterly earnings throughout July and August, and the results should be exciting. Microsoft in particular will post the highest Xbox earnings of all time on July 20, and total Xbox revenues are already at a historic high of $8.124 billion.

The most interesting part of this earnings season is seeing how companies are doing after the massive 2020 surges from stay-at-home measures. Games-makers like Nintendo, EA, Sony, Ubisoft and Take-Two will report their Q1 revenues that help set the pacing for the entire year.

Animator Joe Garth put together an impressive Unreal Engine 5 gameplay demo that shows the power and flexibility of next-gen terrains, giving players an idea of what they might expect from new UE5 titles.

Game dev is at an interesting crossroads. Developers are starting to experiment more with Epic's new Unreal Engine 5 toolset both internally with native UE5 integration and as public demo showcases. The results are exciting--not only do the demos look amazing, they have interesting physics systems to boot. Devs are unanimously praising UE5's new Nanite virtualized geometry feature and are flexing the new optimized engine in unique ways.

One example is Joe Garth's recent demo, which shows an interactive field with real-time destruction physics. "Using the Brushify environment tool, everything you're about to see is running on a single 1080 Ti on a normal, consumer-level desktop PC," Garth said.

A new Deathloop trailer confirms the game is timed exclusive to the PlayStation 5 for one year.

Arkane's stylish new roguelike shooter Deathloop won't stay on PlayStation 5 indefinitely, and could make its way to Game Pass in September 2022. The shooter has been praised for its unique Kubrick-esque art direction and gritty Grindhouse style, and marries Dishonored's supernatural abilities with frenetic FPS combat.

Deathloop's core is all about learning through trial and error. It has a Groundhog Day-style loop where players relive the same day over and over again upon death. Experimentation is encouraged, and luckily gamers aren't on a timer. You'll also be able to keep your weapons and unlocked abilities with each run. It's a novel concept and I'm curious to see how well it does on PS5 insofar as sales.