Gaming - Page 478

Shortly after Randy Pitchford teased a new IP, Take-Two confirms a new Gearbox franchise will launch by April 2022.

2K Games will publish a brand new Gearbox franchise in FY2022 (ends April 2022), Take-Two Interactive confirmed in an earnings report. Outside of annualized sports games like NBA 2K21 and WWE 2K21, the 2K Games label will release two non-sports games during the period: one new game from Gearbox, and another re-release. The Gearbox title is set in a new franchise outside of Borderlands and is described as an "immersive core" game, a categorization that includes long-winded premium experiences.

"Immersive core games offer highly engaging gameplay where people spend hours and hours at a time, things like Grand Theft Auto, Borderlands, RDR, also things like strategy games like Firaxis and sports simulations," Take-Two President Karl Slatoff clarified in the call.

CD Projekt Group gives an update on the securities fraud lawsuits it is currently facing.

In a recent press release, CD Projekt Group confirms that four class action lawsuits have been filed against the company in regards to possible securities fraud. These lawsuits have been combined into one and a single lead plaintiff has been appointed, CD Projekt's counsel has said.

Sony looks to be stepping into the esports betting world through its PlayStation family of consoles in the coming future, with a recently published patent teasing an esports betting platform that would accept bitcoin, and other currencies including in-game items, on live-streamed esports events.

The patent was filed back in 2019 but published in May 2021 which is why we're hearing about it now, and would see Sony using a system where people are watching live-streamed esports events and then betting on the outcome of the games while watching the game in real-time.

There would be a user interface (UI) that would pop up and be overlayed over the game you're watching, letting you bet on it. The patent reads: "Wagers may be pecuniary, e.g., money or bitcoin, or may be non-pecuniary, e.g. game assets, digital rights, and virtual currency". So you can use real money, cryptocurrency, in-game assets and more to bet on games... very, very interesting. Especially using the in-game items as currency, to bet on live-streamed esports games.

Starting July 15, eBay will no longer allow sale or auction of Adults Only-rated video games.

Adults Only games are an obscure if not seedy corner of the video games industry, and the rating is usually seen as a stamp of death for game sales. While the pre-ESRB Atari era had its fair share of porn games, modern AO video games are few and far between, making them rare items for collectors. Now with eBay banning the sale of AO titles, it'll be even harder to acquire these games.

UPDATE: Private Division has stepped in to confirm that Microsoft will indeed publish any future games in The Outer Worlds series:

"Private Division is still supporting and marketing The Outer Worlds, including the upcoming release of Murder on Eridanos DLC on Nintendo Switch. Moving forward, Obsidian and Microsoft will be publishing future iterations in the franchise, and we're absolutely thrilled to see where they take it... but we are more interested in the simple pleasures in life - like the smooth, artificially enhanced flavor of a Rizzo's Purpleberry Munch. Rizzo's Purpleberry Munch - the only snack in Halcyon officially endorsed by the Captain of the Unreliable."

Original story is as follows:

Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive gives clues on possible release timings for GTA 6.

No one knows when GTA 6 is coming, but Take Two's recent earnings call and report offers some hints. First we have to go over a few details on Take-Two's guidance. The company is projecting sequential growth over the next three years driven by a massive 62-game slate. A portion of these games will be mobile, but many of them will be mainline games. While not explicitly mentioned, it's likely Grand Theft Auto 6 is among these games.

Take-Two expects its earnings to continue rising from FY2022 and FY2024, with more net bookings generated year by year. FY2021 already delivered record net revenues ($3.373 billion), bookings ($3.5 billion), and recurrent consumer spending ($2.09 billion). FY2023 will be higher than FY2022, and FY2024 will be even higher.

Grand Theft Auto V is a sales monster that reached 145 million copies shipped to date.

Take-Two's latest financial report shows continued momentum for GTA V. The game has now shipped a whopping 145 million copies worldwide, up 5 million units from Q3 2021. The company also revealed how much Rockstar's legendary billion-dollar franchise has sold in total. The GTA series has sold 345 million copies since it launched decades ago, meaning GTA V makes up 42% of total franchise sales. It's also the only first Grand Theft Auto game to launch across two console generations.

In November, GTA V will also release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles, marking the third time the title has launched on console platforms. Sales are just the tip of the iceberg, though; the real money is with GTA Online, the monetized online platform that's generated over $1 billion in microtransaction earnings to date.

Grand Theft Auto III turns 20 years old in October (feel old yet?), and Rockstar is doing something special to celebrate.

Today Rockstar announced GTA V's next-gen version is coming in November, and a month before that, GTA III will celebrate its 20th birthday. Rockstar cryptically teases some "fun surprises" in store for GTA III's anniversary:

"Plus, in honor of the upcoming 20th anniversary of the genre-defining Grand Theft Auto III, we'll have even more fun surprises to share - including some specifically for GTA Online players," the label said.

GTA V will launch on next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles on November 11, 2021, Rockstar today announced.

In November, Grand Theft Auto V will become the first game in the series to span three console generations with a PS5/Xbox Series X/S release. GTA V is a cash crop for Take-Two, and the game is so big that it's sold 145 million copies as of February 2021. That's 43% of Grand Theft Auto's total franchise sales. The reason for the huge sales is because the game is available on so many platforms, especially the PS4, which has crested 116.4 million shipments worldwide.

It looks like today is another one of those days, where we find out and see more about the new Battlefield game... where we've just had a bunch of images from the purported Battlefield 6 trailer which you can check out below.

But then Battlefield leaker and one-man Battlefield marketing team guy, Tom Henderson, tweet out a puzzle: "words that rhyme with Soon" he says, are "30th June" and "Boom". He adds "IMAGINE if they did that" with the hashtag for Battlefield and a "haha" emoticon.

Now, a June 30 reveal of the trailer... and then EA just dumps the new Battlefield onto Origin out of nowhere, like it did with Apex Legends and we all know how that turned out. Apex Legends to make $750 million this year alone and has racked up 100 million players in the last 2 years.

We might not have the official Battlefield trailer in front of our eyeballs just yet, but that hasn't stopped images leaking onto the internet as usual.

Tom Henderson pulled out the pencils and paper for some awesome Battlefield sketches, with some people questioning his leaks from the artwork he presented as a one-man Battlefield marketing team. Well, after those leaks we heard purported Battlefield 6 music and more details.

But now we have new leaked images that were dropped into Tom Henderson's own Discord server, with the files named "meme.png", "sad.png", "times.png", "no.png", and "bucket.png". Henderson has himself confirmed the authenticity of the leaked images, while we see a couple of frames from the robotic dog in Battlefield that you are able to control.

Tencent is currently working on a cloud gaming platform, but unlike Amazon Luna or Google Stadia, Tencent's streaming service won't have a static controller. Tencent's ideas are bigger than its competitors.

Today at its annual conference, Tencent revealed a novel concept for a games controller that can transform depending on what type of game you're playing. The controller is modular and has two parts: The shell case and the actual guts of the controller with D-pads and face buttons.

The idea is to sell different controller faces for specific types of games, whether they be mobile or console titles. One design has a six-button layout that reflects popular touchscreen mobile games (Tencent also showed off a slew of mobile titles at the event including CrossFire HD and Digimon: New Century). Tencent's cloud game streaming service will offer both mobile games as well as traditional console experiences.

Starbreeze's latest Q1 2021 financials show a dramatic shift towards eventual profitability. The Payday publisher isn't out of the red just yet, but it's doing a lot better.

Starbreeze's losses shrank by a massive 95% in Q1'21. Starbreeze Q1 losses were -4.248 million SEK ($486,396 based on 3/31 conversion rates) as compared to -97,338 million SEK in Q1'20. They aren't profitable yet due to long- and short-term liabilities (debts) and increased development investment/spending. This reduction in losses was made possible by increased earnings, and Starbreeze also paid back most of its creditors at the end of 2020.

In Q1'21, Starbreeze made pretty good net sales based on continued strong Payday 2 monetization/engagement, primarily on PC. PC made up 88% of Starbreeze Games' net sales during the quarter (Payday 2).

YouTuber Skullzi has leaked yet another Starfield image, and this one is from a later playable build.

The sun is shining on another leaked image for Bethesda's new IP Starfield. The new screenshot isn't too climactic and is quite similar to the previous leaks, but this one is actually from a 2019 build of the game. The previous leaks were reportedly from a version made in 2018.

For comparison's sake, here's what Starfield looked like in 2018:

UPDATE:Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reports that Starfield is "nowhere near done" and will release later than expected.

Starfield could be pegged for an early 2022 release on Xbox and PC, reports say.

A bit ago VentureBeat's Jeff Grubb "confirmed" Starfield would skip PlayStation consoles and be exclusive to PC and Xbox. Now Grubb is corroborating an off-the-cuff prediction from Kinda Funny's Blessing Adeoye about a Q1 2022 release for Starfield. Grubb's info has proven to be accurate in the past, especially with Nintendo news.

Bethesda's new legendary crafting system in Fallout 76 is extremely unpopular among players and adds a lot of extra grinding to the game.

Fallout 76's faithful are quick to offer constructive criticism on the game's latest updates and content, and the live game's new legendary crafting system is no different. The Fallout 76 Subreddit makes one thing very clear: Players really don't like the new legendary crafting system that's being tested in the PTS.

For the first time, Fallout 76 players can now craft top-tier legendary items. Sort of. The system is very layered and filled with lots of grinding and praying to RNGesus. These are the kinds of things that push players away.

Legendary Final Fantasy 7 director Yoshinori Kitase is now the brand manager for the Final Fantasy game series.

At the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest 2021 event, MMO producer Naoki Yoshida confirms Yoshinori Kitase now controls the future of the popular RPG franchise. Kitase has been instrumental in shaping the creative forces behind the series and directed both Final Fantasy 7 and 8, and producer a ton of games including Final Fantasy 10, 13, and the new Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Yoshida says Kitase was named brand manager in April, however Square Enix didn't reveal any information to investors on its IR page. Hashimoto had served as the steward of the franchise for many years, overseeing Square Enix's internal Business Division 3 for six years.

Across the last 8 years Square Enix has been weaving an epic tale of magic, goddesses, and machina; FFXIV's new Endwalker expansion puts an end to this saga.

Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker marks the epic conclusion to the Hydaelyn-Zodiark storyline that started in 2013. The expansion brings a host of new content including major arc developments and a climactic conclusion on the surface of the moon, alongside a myriad of new updates, content, and features.

Endwalker brings two new job classes: The healing Sage and the scythe-wielding DPS job class Reaper, as well as a bunch of new areas like the Mare Lamentorum on the surface of the moon and a new beautiful, Greek-inspired city of Old Sharlayan. Endwalker will also take us to the capital city of Garlemald to face the cold, calculating Garlean Empire.

Final Fantasy XIV's new Endwalker expansion releases November 23, 2021 on PS4, PS5, and PC, bringing a close to the game's epic story arc.

Endwalker is a fitting name for the new FFXIV expansion--it brings the end of an era. This will be the fourth major FFIXV A Realm Reborn expansion, and everything Square Enix has done across the last 8 years has been building up to this epic climax between the goddess Hydaelyn and her foe Zodiark. As the world of Hydaelyn burns, the Warrior of Light will face the tyrannical Garlean Empire on the surface on the moon.

Content-wise, Endwalker brings a bunch of new updates. There's a new Reaper DPS job class that wields a giant scythe and some very Bloodborne-esque threads, and a new Sage healer class. Endwalker brings a new playable Male Viera race and some amazing-looking new areas, including the city of Old Sharlayan, as well as other areas like Mare Lamentorum on the moon's surface and the very Greek-esque Labyrinthos.

VentureBeat journalist Jeff Grubb asserts Starfield will be exclusive to PC and Xbox consoles, a move that Microsoft has telegraphed.

Like any business that makes a $7.5 billion acquisition, Microsoft wants to make back its investment as soon as possible. That's why Starfield, the latest singleplayer space epic from Bethesda, is likely to be exclusive to Xbox platforms.

So why is Microsoft doing this? Starfield's exclusivity is part of Microsoft's long haul approach. The idea isn't necessarily to sell full games (although that's part of it). Starfield's exclusivity would help drive Game Pass subscription growth and retention. Microsoft's entire business model is built around a cohesive webwork of services that A) generated subscription revenues, B) pull in microtransactions, and C) help propel full game sales.