Gaming - Page 481

The world is waiting for EA and DICE to unleash the new Battlefield trailer, with all forms of teases of the trailer already in the form of sketches, the purported trailer music, details of the trailer and so much more.

But now Battlefield leaker and a better and free marketing campaign manager, Tom Henderson, tweeted out some spoiler-heavy details of the trailer. I'm going to presume if you didn't want to read this news that you would've stopped by now but the Battlefield trailer could be delayed over... the impending Chinese rocket that is going to explode somewhere on Earth in the next couple of days.

Why is this an issue? Henderson says that the new Battlefield trailer has a "rocket in the trailer does explode and falls down and kills soldiers, so releasing the trailer (if a disaster happens) could be a bad move". Well, yeah... it would look bad, real bad for EA. A rocket hitting the ground and killing soldiers in a game, as a Chinese rocket blowing up somewhere on Earth in the real-world and possibly killing people.

CD Projekt RED confirms it is discussing possible collaborations with Witcher 3 mod creators on its next-gen Witcher 3 port.

Witcher 3's upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X port could be created with the help of modders. CD Projekt has contacted Halk Hogan, the creator of The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project mod on PC, to possibly work on the new next-gen version of Witcher 3.

Hogan said this in a recent update:

Activision recently teased big things coming to Warzone soon. Now we have an idea of what's on the horizon.

80s action star John Rambo is coming to Warzone. This move breaks the fourth wall and solidifies Activision's push towards its own unique Metaverse plan (the Metaverse is a concept where users connect in an online, persistent world complete with fictional and real-life pop culture icons showing up to create a melting pot of influences). Now sources say the Terminator will also show up in Warzone at some point.

With tons of crossovers from comics, films, and even platform-holders like Xbox and PlayStation set inside of a social monetized ecosystem, Epic's Fortnite is the most popular example of a Metaverse to date. Fortnite is more than a game, it's an experience that sees worlds converge in one interactive monetized medium. This kind of Metaverse model is a boon for business and Fortnite has earned over $12 billion to date with the help of licensed characters and franchises.

Note: The following reports have yet to be confirmed, and DigiTimes is noted to have a "spotty" record.

Sony is reportedly moving its PlayStation 5 SoC to TSMC's 6nm node (N6) in a effort to increase worldwide console availability, but this new SKU won't be a PS5 Pro model with enhanced power.

Like Microsoft, Sony has hit a wall with next-gen console stock. Demand has far exceeded supply. Sony plans to adapt by moving the PS5's 7nm+ SoC over to TMSC's 6nm process in 2022. This migration won't deliver a dramatic upgrade and gamers shouldn't expect a PlayStation 5 Pro.

Sony is reportedly preparing a tweaked PlayStation 5 console, something that would be released sometime in 2023 and would feature a tweaked semi-custom AMD APU on TSMC's new 6nm node.

The new semi-custom APU would still feature the same Zen 2 CPU cores and RDNA 2 GPU cores as the PlayStation 5, but the chip would be made on TSMC's new N6 (6nm) process compared to the N7 (7nm) process that the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S chips are made on.

Digitimes is behind the report which teases that Sony shouldn't be redesigning the physical look and style of the PS5, but it would rather be inside tweaks through the system-on-chip being made on the 6nm node. Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL), a part of ASE Technology Holding, and Tongfu Microelectronics are continuing on their mission of chip packaging services for Sony's assemply partners -- but nothing official about the tweaked PS5 just yet.

It's no secret Activision wants to bring all of its franchises to mobile in a free-to-play capacity. Activision President & Chief Operating Officer Daniel Alegre outlines why this strategy is essential.

Activision is using mobile gaming in two ways: A gateway for consumers to access franchises and content, and a path to monetization. The company wants its mobile games to be both self-contained but also spark interest in mainline games on PCs and consoles. The plan is working; Call of Duty Mobile has made over $1 billion with 500 million downloads worldwide. Activision-Blizzard wants all of its franchises to have a mobile title to replicate this kind of performance.

"Each of our franchises has to have a mobile presence, because that's how our players want to engage," Alegre said at the Collision Conference 2021.

Gearbox's Randy Pitchford pretty much confirms what we already knew: Borderlands 4 is in development.

Gearbox is currently ramping up its development teams for the next big Borderlands game--in fact, the company is hiring 53 people into its ranks. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford said on Twitter that the Frisco-based studio is "working on the big one," which pretty much squashes any doubt on the next project.

"We are definitely working on some amazing stuff that, I hope, will surprise and delight you. Plug: if anyone out there has Skills-To-Pay-Bills and wants to get in on some Borderlands action, we're working on the big one :)," Pitchford said.

Activision expects 2021 to be its best year ever with $8.37 billion in net revenues. 2022 could be even better.

Activision teases a significant "step change" for financial growth in 2022 that could see multiple high-profile games launching during the year. In the company's recent Q1 2021 earnings call, Activision execs lay out a significant pipeline for 2022 and beyond. Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 are listed for projects in this timeline, and although no release windows were revealed, Activision says it expects a substantial earnings change in 2022. This could indicate that both of these games could release in 2022 alongside a mainline Call of Duty release.

"We are making great progress on our pipeline which includes key content that we expect to deliver another step change in financial performance in 2022 as well as unannounced initiatives that we expect to drive longer-term growth for the company," said Activision-Blizzard's new Chief Financial Officer Armin Zerza.

The new Battlefield is so close to being official revealed -- at least with its first teaser trailer, any moment now. The hype is pretty real, with industry insider Tom Henderson ramping up the hype engines to 11 with a flurry of tweets.

The first tweet from Henderson is a track by 2EWI feat. Ali Christenhusz called Run Baby Run, which is funny because I've had that track in my "Best Playlist Ever" on Spotify for quite a while now, just above the Battlefield theme music that I still to this day love. Listen to the track because it's pretty kick ass -- Henderson said "this is it", this is the Battlefield "reveal tune".

The next tweet is from Back to the Future, where at the start of the first movie when Marty tweaks the OVERDRIVE dial right up to and past 100. What a second tweet... and then the third:

Nintendo's FY2021 has broken records for profits, operating income, hardware and software sales thanks to astronomical overperformance of its Switch platform.

Nintendo just enjoyed its best yearly earnings since its platform boom back in 2009. The company's FY2021 results saw a whopping $16 billion in net sales revenues, second only to FY2009's DS and Wii dream-team earnings. FY2021 broke new ground for operating profit with over $6 billion (+81%) earned, and net profits that hit a new all-time high of $4.53 billion (+85%).

The results were driven by hardware and software sales surges during one of the most unprecedented demand periods in the last decade. Consumers turned towards gaming as they sheltered at home against the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of people wanted to buy Switch hardware and demand led to massive stock restrictions.

Nintendo's digital earnings surge thanks to COVID-19 quarantines and record-breaking game sales across its Switch platform.

Digital gaming has surged as worldwide countries sheltered in place against the coronavirus pandemic. Nintendo in particular saw a boom in digital games earnings; Nintendo generated a whopping $3.2 billion from digital game sales, subscriptions, DLC, and microtransactions on the eShop in FY2021, up nearly 70% from last year.

Nintendo sold 230.88 million Switch games in FY2021, a new yearly record with every quarter consecutively setting new all-time highs. 42.8% of total game sales were digital, or 98.81 million, a new high point. Nintendo says that nearly 80% of game sales were first-party titles, or roughly 183 million games.

Xbox consoles aren't profitable, but Nintendo Switch consoles sure are.

Yesterday, Microsoft exec Lori Wright confirmed no Xbox console has ever been sold at a profit (Xbox is however about to make more money than it ever has before). The opposite couldn't be more true for the Nintendo Switch, which was manufactured to be profitable right at launch. Nintendo's recent FY2021 results illustrate this point quite clearly.

While Sony and Microsoft sell consoles at a loss and rely on game sales, monetization, and services to turn a profit, Nintendo designed the Switch so it made a profit at the beginning of its lifespan. Every year Nintendo makes profits from Switch hardware, and in FY2021 alone, the company generated a whopping $8.2 billion from hardware sales. Hardware made up over half (57.2%) of its total gaming earnings (over $16 billion), the company said in a recent earnings report.

The Nintendo Switch shows no signs of stopping. The console just hit 84.59 million units sold and beat the Game Boy Advance, making it the fourth best-selling Nintendo product of all time. Software is likewise smashing records, and now Nintendo has an assortment of mega-hits on the Switch.

The Switch platform is skyrocketing right now. Nintendo made more than $16 billion from games in FY2021, and 57% of that, or roughly $8.2 billion, was from hardware alone. Nintendo sold a massive 230 million games throughout the year, pushing its top 10 best-sellers to new heights.

The Switch currently has 10 first-party games that have sold over 10 million copies each. Animal Crossing New Horizons has finally slowed down its monstrous sales pace (it was previously selling 1 million copies every week for quite some time) and Mario Party saw a particularly nice uplift throughout FY2021.

The Nintendo Switch just beat the Game Boy Advance in sales. It's next target? The mighty Wii.

Nintendo just posted up its Fiscal Year 2021 results to much fanfare. We'll be going over the exact details of the numbers across a few articles, but first let's take a look at Switch sales growth. As of March 31, 2021, the Nintendo Switch has sold 84.59 million units cumulatively over its lifetime (our numbers below are at 84.62 million based on rounded figures from Nintendo). The handheld-console Switch family now outranks the Game Boy Advance (81.51 million) and has become Nintendo's fourth best-selling platform of all time in hardware sales.

On a quarter-by-quarter basis, the Switch has consistently hit record sales performance. Fiscal Year 2021 was the best period in the system's history with 28.84 million sales globally (+37% year-over-year). Each quarter in FY21 consistently set a new record high for sales thanks to the tag-team Switch Lite and base Switch duo working together during a period of unusual demand.

Sony Bend is currently ramping up its dev teams for its next big AAA game, but it won't be Days Gone 2.

Sony's Bend, Oregon-based game studio is hiring 11 people to help make its new game. According to the job listings, which range from art and animation to direction and programming, the project is AAA in scope and is a next-gen PlayStation 5 exclusive.

The listings don't paint a clear picture of what's next for Sony Bend Studio, but past reports from Bloomberg say the team is working on a new original franchise.

Tencent may be forced to divest its ownership and investments in U.S. game companies over national security worries.

The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment is currently weighing whether or not Tencent will get to keep its investment in U.S.-based game companies. The concern surrounds how Tencent collects, handles, and stores the personal information of millions of players from U.S. firms like League of Legends developer Riot Games and Epic Games. Together, both Epic and Riot generate billions every year from in-game transactions and game sales on the Epic Games Store.

Sources tell Reuters that the Chinese games titan Tencent is currently negotiating with the inter-agency in the hopes it can keep its stakes in U.S. games companies like Riot Games (100% ownership), Epic Games (40% ownership), and Activision-Blizzard (5% minority stake).

Resident Evil Village is about to launch on the PC and it unfortunately comes as no surprise, but more of a disappointment, that the game ships without any ability to adjust the field of view (FOV) on the PC.

But never fear, the PC modding community is here: Nexus Mods user Maceyaface has crafted magic with a very quick fix for the Resident Evil Village demo on the PC that provides an FOV slider that lets you adjust the field of view in real-time. There are separate FOV sliders for the base field of view, and the zoomed-in field of view while the mod will remember your last-set FOV options and auto-sets.

The FOV mod for Resident Evil Village has some limitations in the form of the cutscenes in the game not having their field of view adjusted.

Sony puts out a new trailer outlining which PS4 games will play better on PS5, including major first-party exclusives.

The PS5's Game Boost feature allows PS4 games to tap the next-gen console's higher-end CPU, GPU, and SSD tech to deliver enhanced gameplay. While the perf varies on a game-to-game basis, and devs have to go back and update specific titles to leverage the PS5, the results can deliver markedly different experiences with 60FPS upgrades (although this seems to pale in comparison to the Series X's massive FPS Boost, which skyrockets some games to 120FPS).

The new Sony video only shows three PS4 games that take advantage of Game Boost, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima. Shadow of the Colossus, but other titles include Days Gone and Ratchet & Clank. The PS5 also natively boosts load times of PS4 games installed on its PCIe 4.0 SSD.

BioWare's new Mass Effect trilogy remaster can hit up to 1440p 120FPS on Xbox Series X, but is locked to a hard cap of 1440p 60FPS on PlayStation 5.

Today BioWare announced new performance targets for the Mass Effect Legendary Edition. The results are particularly interesting especially for next-gen hardware. The game will have two modes: one for quality, which allows 4K visuals, and the other optimizes smooth frame rates.

The Xbox Series X can hit 4K 60FPS with quality mode enabled, but in FPS mode it can hit 1440p 120FPS with resolution scaling. The PS5 can likewise hit 4K 60FPS but drops to 1440p 60FPS with the frame rate mode ticked on. It's worth mentioning the Series X's GPU is nearly 18% more powerful than the PS5's.

Xbox consoles don't make a profit and instead rely on software, services, and monetization to make money, Microsoft reiterates in the Epic vs Apple trial.

According to Lori Wright, Vice President, Gaming, Media & Entertainment at Microsoft, the company's 30% revenue commission is "required" for Xbox consoles to be manufactured or sold. All Xbox hardware has been sold at a loss, and not a single generation's hardware sales have been profitable.

"Your justification for the 30% commission is because the hardware doesn't make money," Apple counsel asked in the trial.