Gaming - Page 485

The ESA has cancelled its plans to hold a physical E3 2021, and will instead stream the showcase online.

Rather than cancelling E3 like it did in 2020, the ESA is pivoting and making E3 2021 an all-digital show. Exact plans haven't been confirmed, but sources say the ESA is currently pitching ideas to major publishers and developers to help fill out the event.

E3 2021 is still planned from June 15 - 17, 2021, and it should culminate in a number of special reveals and streams. However, Geoff Keighley won't be involved this time either. Keighley will instead focus on the Summer Game Fest, an event that started in 2020 to help celebrate a myriad of games. That means we won't get the excellent E3 Coliseum events where developers talk candidly about their upcoming games.

Animal Crossing New Horizons has now sold more than 30 million copies in less than 40 weeks on the market. It could soon become the top-selling game on the Switch.

Ever since we started charting Nintendo's top 10 game sales since Q4'20, we've seen multiple Switch games slowly taper off. Everything changed when Animal Crossing New Horizons exploded onto the platform in 2020. Since then, Animal Crossing has sold nearly 1 million copies every week since launch, and has slightly slowed down throughout the year.

Right now, Animal Crossing is the second best-selling game on the Switch, second only to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Within just 40 weeks on the market, Animal Crossing has amassed a staggering 31.18 million copies sold on the Switch. A quick bit of math shows that nearly 40% of all Switch owners have purchased Animal Crossing. For comparison's sake, it's taken Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 190 weeks to claim the Switch's software throne with 33.41 million copies.

We know that EA DICE is hard at work on Battlefield 6, which is dropping in Spring 2021 and has been designed for over 128 players with 32v32 being standard in previous leaks. Well, check out this latest leak:

Battlefield 6 will reportedly have full unscripted skyscraper destruction for the first time ever, with industry leaker Tom Henderson teasing it in a couple of tweets. You can see that the tweet has a picture of some buildings with some snipers on top of them, and then the buildings are destroyed.

The sniper is then just standing there... with no more cover -- this would be the point behind the full unscripted skyscraper destruction. I still remember hearing the first rumors of Battlefield 6 in June 2020 and said that the thing I was most excited to see in Battlefield 6 was the "return, and market domination of a next-gen Levolution technology that DICE made famous in Battlefield 4 back in 2013. The video above makes it feel like so long ago now, but it would be great to see a truly next-gen upgrade to destruction in Battlefield 6".

I still remember my parents entering a competition for me back in the 90s where I won a Game Boy on one of those live TV shows in the morning before school, and I got to school and everyone was like "whoa, Anthony you won a Game Boy today!!!" and I had no clue.

Nintendo launched its Game Boy in 1989 but it has been modded and turned into an Apple TV remote. The case that Italian YouTuber Otto Climan used was made by Retro Modding specifically for this project, and infuses the 90s look of Nintendo and Apple products.

The display is slightly better than a regular Game Boy, while the modder added in an IR blaster and custom software so that he could tweak and map the buttons of the Game Boy to the IR controls. He loaded up his custom software onto a custom ROM, programmed with IR codes and button mappings ready for Apple TV -- and thus it was born: the modded Nintendo Game Boy turned into an Apple TV remote.

The Nintendo Switch is on a roll. Not only did it break hardware sales records in the holiday Q3 period, but it shattered game purchases as well.

2020 was the best year in history for the Nintendo Switch. Hardware sales hit 24.1 million in 2020, bringing total unit sales to 79.87 million, which solidifies the Switch as the 5th best-selling Nintendo hardware of all time.

Software broke new grounds, too. In holiday 2020, the Switch sold an astronomical 75.85 million games--more than it's ever sold before in a single quarter. Total Switch game sales are now at 532.34 million since the system's launch in 2017. The Switch is now #3 in game sales, and sits behind the Wii's massive 920 million and the DS' huge 948.64 million software sales.

Call of Duty's free-to-play Warzone mode is the glue that will hold the franchise together in 2021 and beyond.

Warzone is the biggest thing Activision has ever done. The F2P game's ecosystem is so transformative that all of Activision-Blizzard's franchises will adapt its model in some form. Warzone is the connective tissue that binds mainline premium games in a monetized, accessible, and synergistic package. Activision's emphasis on cross-progression, cross-play, and cross-SKU has unlocked the full spectrum of money-making potential.

Activision knows how important Warzone is. 2020 was just the beginning. The mode isn't going anywhere, and will continue integrating all future mainline CoD games moving forward. In 2021, Warzone will tie three games together: Modern Warfare, Black Ops Cold War, and COD 2021.

Activision confirms Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 are still a ways off, but doesn't give any exact release dates for either.

Both Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 started development as early as 2016, and have seen many iterations and changes since that time. Fans will be waiting a bit longer for both games. In a recent earnings report, company CFO Dennis Durkin says that Blizzard won't have any new mainline premium releases for 2021. Blizzard will instead focus on digital content updates (and probably a Diablo II remaster).

"We expect Blizzard's net bookings to grow given the momentum in World of Warcraft and the other growth initiatives we have in the business," Durkin said.

The Nintendo Switch has now sold 79.87 million units worldwide, beating the 3DS and soon the Game Boy Advance.

2020 has been a monumental year for Nintendo. Switch sales broke records for the third straight quarter in a row, and profits and net sales have seen huge gains to $2.97 billion and $5.9 billion respectively. Gauging the Switch's current standings against other Nintendo hardware really underlines the system's remarkable performance.

According to Nintendo's sales data, the Switch is now the fifth best-selling system of all time, beating out predecessors like the 3DS and legacy hardware including the NES and SNES. In fact, the system is closing in on Game Boy Advance's 81.51 million sales mark. Nintendo expects the Switch to sell 26.5 million units throughout FY2021. It has currently sold 24.1 million consoles, leaving 2.4 million units left, which would total 82.27 million.

Diablo 2 could be revealed this month at Blizzcon 2021, and released this year alongside Diablo Immortal.

Activision-Blizzard may have teased a Diablo 2 remaster during its recent Q4 earnings report. While the game wasn't outright mentioned, we did get some clues from company executive Dennis Durkin:

"So across our three biggest franchises (Candy Crush, Call of Duty, World of Warcraft), we have great momentum. And then we have a few other things up our sleeve in terms of remastered content that will unveil in due course which should provide further opportunities for us this year."

The Division 2 has now received its next-gen console update, super-powering the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles. The update runs The Division 2 through backwards compatibility, driving up to 4K 60FPS in some cases.

A comparison video was made, and shows the differences between the 3 next-gen consoles:

We know that The Division 2 runs at native the native 4K resolution on Xbox Series X, and drops down to 1080p on the Xbox Series S console. Meanwhile, Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 console renders it at 1944p -- with the PS5 lagging behind in areas like reflections, fog, anisotropic filtering and draw distance issues in The Division 2 compared to the superior Xbox Series X.

Activision made a record-breaking $8 billion in revenues in 2020 thanks to Warzone, Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, and World of Warcraft.

Activision did it again. The company has broken its own sales record for a second time, beating 2018's previous $7.5 billion record by over $500 million. Throughout 2020, Activision-Blizzard generated a staggering $8.086 billion in revenues (+25% year-over-year) and handily beating the original yearly sales estimate of $7.675 billion.

The company generated a new all-time profit high of $2.173 billion on the back of the huge revenue gains, alongside a new $2.7 billion operating income record. The publisher attributes these astronomical gains to its new four-part plan, which emphasizes focus on mobile games, full-priced premium games, F2P titles, and monetization. The plan sees big franchises like Call of Duty transforming into a cohesive cross-monetized ecosystem made up of F2P games like Warzone, two premium CoD releases (Modern Warfare and Cold War), and a Call of Duty mobile release.

ZeniMax co-founder Robert Altman has passed away at the age of 74, Bethesda today announced.

Industry icon Robert Altman has died, leaving behind a decades-long string of games and entertainment. A former lawyer, Altman co-founded ZeniMax in 1999 and created the Bethesda parent company alongside Bethesda Softworks founder Chris Weaver. An everlasting legacy of interactive content ensued, solidified with big-name franchises like The Elder Scrolls, eventually branching off into the multi-studio network that includes studios like MachineGames, Arkane, and id.

Altman was reportedly well-liked at Bethesda and key industry figures have chimed in to recount their experiences with the transformative CEO. Bethesda won't be the same without his guidance, and we could see the company shift after Altman's loss and the recent Microsoft acquisition.

With just 667GB of usable space, the PS5's SSD is premium real estate. But there's some good news for PS5 owners: Specific games are now becoming smaller compared to other platforms due to powerful compressing tech.

Control Ultimate Edition is one of the first games to flex the PS5's new Kraken compression tech. The game clocks in just 25GB on PS5 with 4K resolution textures and PS5 optimizations intact, a 42% reduction from the Series X/S file size of 42GB. This isn't a big reduction from the PS4 version, though, which only clocks in at 24GB.

It's worth noting the two consoles use different compression systems. PS5 uses RAD Game Tools' new Oodle Kraken, which massively improves data compression. This new toolset synergizes with the PS5's new highly customized PCIe 4.0 SSD and 12-channel memory controller that enables compressed data speeds of up to 9GB/sec.

The PS5 didn't have enough stock to beat the PS4's initial holiday sales, Sony confirms.

Demand for Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 has far exceeded supply, and limited availability has hampered console sales. Sony reveals the PS5 has only been able to match the PS4 during a year of unprecedented sales potential.

In Q3'20, which stretched from October through December 2020, the PS5 sold-in 4.5 million units--the same sales volume as the PS4 during its holiday 2013 launch. The numbers are actually pretty good as the PS4 was no slouch at launch, but Sony could've hit much greater thresholds if production and console stock hadn't been so restricted.

Embracer Group (formerly THQ Nordic) now owns a whopping 244 IPs and franchises, the company today confirmed.

Today Embracer bought some big companies, including Gearbox (Borderlands), Easybrain (mobile games), and Aspyr Media (known for ports). These acquisitions bumped Embracer's IP treasure trove by 22 franchises, and right now the media titan has 244 IPs at their disposal. This number includes Gearbox's mega-hit Borderlands series--a franchise so powerful that Embracer gave Gearbox its own unit division.

The company also updated its game studio count to 137 external and internal teams. Most of the teams are external (73) versus internal (64), and THQ Nordic is the largest with 41 studios, followed by Koch Media's 35 studios.

Gearbox, the devs behind Borderlands and the dreaded Aliens Colonial Marines, has been purchased by The Embracer Group (aka THQ Nordic).

Gearbox is now part of Embracer's massive arsenal of talent, and the acquisition is so big that Gearbox is getting their own operating division. Gearbox will sit at the head of its own table similar to Deep Silver and Saber Interactive. Right now, Gearbox leads its own internal companies--Gearbox Software, the dev team, and Gearbox Publishing, the publishing firm--but that could change as more studios are acquired.

Embracer paid $363 million upfront, of which $188 million was in cash and the remainder will be paid in 7.4 million Embracer Class B shares worth $175 million. Gearbox could earn a bonus worth up to $1 billion across a six-year timeline if it can fulfill specific sales revenue and operation targets.

PS4 worldwide shipments hit 115.5 million to date, but the console is winding down as the PlayStation 5 aims to replace the 7-year-old console.

Sony just released its holiday Q3'20 revenues, and recorded the best gaming earnings in its history. Despite the record earnings, which was driven primarily by an astronomical 103.7 million software sales, hardware has slumped. PS4 consoles sales in particular are winding down--FY2020 is currently the slowest year for PS4 sales.

In Q3'20, Sony sold just 1.4 million PS4 consoles, down a substantial 77% year-over-year. The PS5 buying frenzy was the culprit and next-gen PlayStation 5 consoles remain sold out worldwide. Despite the slump, total hardware sales revenues are up 61.3% to 239.54 billion yen ($2.92 billion) driven primarily strong PlayStation 5 adoption and somewhat-consistent PS4 console sales.

EA has made over $3 billion from Star Wars games and the publisher has no plans to abandon the franchise.

EA has a rocky history with Star Wars games. The publisher has cancelled three high-profile titles to date; Project Ragtag, an ambitious bounty hunter/Uncharted game that died alongside Visceral Games; Project Orca, an open-world game from EA Vancouver; and Project Viking, a Battlefront-style spin-off also from EA Vancouver.

As a result, Disney has now given other studios like Ubisoft the rights to make their own Star Wars games.

EA says Battlefield 6 will feature "all-out military warfare" and all but confirms the massive 128-player rumors we've been hearing about.

According to EA, the next Battlefield will be bigger than ever before. EA CEO Andrew Wilson teases absolutely huge maps, more players than ever before, and big next-gen console upgrades. No specifics on perf targets were revealed, but EA did confirm Battlefield 6 is farther along than any other previous game--which signals DICE has been working on it for some time.

This is good news considering the game is set to release Holiday 2021 on next-gen systems and PC. A full reveal is coming sometime in Spring, the company said.

Nintendo Switch sales hit a new all-time high in Q3, leading to the third consecutive record-breaking quarter in a row.

Four years in, the Nintendo Switch is more popular than ever. 2020 has been monumental for Nintendo, and the vital holiday period is no different: In Q3, which ends in December, Nintendo sold an astronomical 11.57 million Switch consoles. These results weren't just a new high for Q3 sales, but historical quarterly volume: Q3 had more console sales than any other quarter since the Switch launched in March 2017.

The handheld-console hybrid has now sold over 79 million units worldwide, including the Switch Lite, which has now sold nearly as much as the Wii U.