Gaming - Page 490

CD Projekt just shipped Cyberpunk 2077, but it's been plotting out future games for a while. Its next game could return to the fantasy world of The Witcher.

In a recent apology video, CD Projekt Group co-founder Marcin Iwinski teases new projects outside of Cyberpunk 2077. "Beyond Cyberpunk we have many more plans for the future, which we will share when we're ready," Iwinski said in the explanation video. It's highly likely one of these projects is a fully-fledged Witcher singleplayer game.

We've speculated about a new Witcher game for years, and in March 2020, CDPR pretty much confirmed it was happening.

Ubisoft's Massive Entertainment studio is working on a new open-world Star Wars project for Lucasfilm. So what's up with the Avatar game?

After Ubisoft Massive's big Star Wars announcement I had a simple question: Is the Avatar game still in development? In 2017, Massive Entertainment announced they were making a new Avatar game that would tie into James Cameron's new Avatar films. It's being made with the Snowdrop Engine (just like the Star Wars game). It's also been a while since we've heard any updates.

We now know the Avatar game is still in development. Ubisoft Massive is still hiring for the Avatar game; last night I spotted a quick LinkedIn post from Michael McDonald, who recently joined the team as a senior lighting artist for the game.

CD Projekt RED blames Cyberpunk 2077's dismal PS4, Xbox One console performance on lower-end hard drives and says the game's multitude of glitches took them by surprise.

Apparently CD Projekt RED was just as surprised about Cyberpunk 2077's bad console performance as gamers were. According to a recent update from CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwinski, the company performed rigorous playtests after each Cyberpunk 2077 build iteration and wasn't able to re-create many of the glitches and bad performance that're now immortalized as internet memes.

"Every change and improvement needed to be tested, and as it turned out, our testing did not show a big part of the issues you experienced while playing the game," Iwinski said.

The Switch is slowly sparking sales in China, and shipments have reached 1 million units in the overseas region.

China is a billon-dollar goldmine for the games industry, and every major player wants in on the revenues. Nintendo is one such player. Since being introduced in 2019, partner Tencent says the Switch has shipped 1 million units in China. beating out the PS4 and Xbox One in the region.

These might be impressive numbers for China, a market that typically restricts and thoroughly vets gaming content, but the sales don't stack up to other markets. Japanese consumers purchased 6.2 million Switch units in 2020 alone, and the Switch accounted for 87% of Japan's console sales. United States gamers purchased 6.92 million Switch consoles as of November 2020.

WB Games has delayed Hogwarts Legacy into 2022 to make "the best possible experience for all the Wizarding World."

Avalanche's new Harry Potter RPG will now release in 2022 on PS5, Xbox Series S/X, and PC, the developers today confirmed. The innovative Hogwarts Legacy was supposed to re-write a new Potterverse era in 2020, but Avalanche needs more time. This should be the first of many delays in 2021 as the coronavirus pandemic continues raging worldwide. Avalanche is set in Salt Lake City, Utah and its workers are making the game remotely.

Hogwarts Legacy has been in development since 2017, and is one of the more ambitious games WB has put out. It's set in the 1800s era of the Wizarding World and fleshes out important precursors to the Harry Potter saga, complete with unique adult themes, RPG character progression, interactive environments, and magic-oriented combat.

Respawn patches Jedi: Fallen Order for next-gen consoles that adds more performance mode tweaks.

Jedi: Fallen Order now plays better than ever on PS5 and Xbox Series X. The update is pretty small at about 800MB, but it brings some big performance gains. Respawn's Uncharted-like Jedi adventure game can now hit 1080p 60FPS native on PS5 and Xbox Series X on HD displays, and there's also improved dynamic resolution for UHD displays. The Series X can push dynamic res between 1080p - 1440p in performance mode, and from 1512p - 2160p in normal mode. Post-processing res has been boosted to 4K in the normal mode too.

On PS5, JFO now runs at a 60FPS frame rate and post-processing has been boosted to 1440p. The game no longer has dynamic resolution and now renders at 1200p, an up to 48% increase over the previous rendering range.

Amid massive pressure from stakeholders, gamers, and the industry as a whole, CDPR says it's trying to get Cyberpunk 2077 back on the PlayStation Store as soon as possible.

It's been nearly a month since Cyberpunk 2077 was removed from the PlayStation Store by Sony. The game's dismal performance on base PS4 consoles triggered a big controversy that led to mass refunds (even Sony, a company that hardly ever offers refunds, gave consumers their money back for CP2077) and the game being pulled from digital sale to some 113 million PS4 owners. CD Projekt now says it's working hard to get the game back on the storefront.

"We have no knowledge of a specific date to return to the PlayStation Store. We are in constant contact with representatives of Sony Interactive Entertainment and we are working to ensure that our title returns to the Sony store as soon as possible," CD Projekt Group president Adam Kicinski told the Polish Agency Press.

CD Projekt RED reveals a roadmap for Cyberpunk 2077 updates and bug fixes that carries into 2021.

CDPR solidifies its commitment to fixing Cyberpunk 2077 with a new year-long roadmap. The company still plans to release two big PS4 and Xbox One optimization patches back-to-back in January and February, along with a host of hotfixes and other updates throughout the year. Based on the spacing on the roadmap, we can guess the free DLC won't release until May, which aligns with out predictions that the content has been delayed so CDPR has enough time to fix Cyberpunk 2077's last-gen game performance.

The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S upgrades may not release until August or September 2021. CD Projekt promises that existing PS4 and Xbox One owners will get free upgrades to next-gen consoles, but they haven't detailed what kind of performance upgrades gamers can expect on PS5/SeriesS/X hardware. Expect better frame rates, faster loading times, reduced glitches, and possibly ray tracing support.

EA no longer has exclusive reign over the Star Wars games license, but that doesn't mean it'll stop making games in the sci-fi series.

Today Lucasfilm Games confirmed multiple publishers are working on Star Wars games, including The Division developer Ubisoft Massive, who's making an open-world game. Disney apparently hasn't renewed EA's Star Wars exclusivity contract.

Even still, EA still has multiple new Star Wars games in its pipeline--it's just no longer the star of the show. "We're really proud of the games we have created with EA," Lucasfilm Games VP Douglas Reilly says."We will continue working with them and our relationship has never been stronger. While we may not have a lot of details to share at the moment, we've got a number of projects underway with the talented teams at EA."

Ubisoft today announced that it's making a new Star Wars game. Based on market trends and Disney's big new Jedi series, we can make some educated guesses on what to expect from the new project.

Note: This article is speculative, but it's based on Ubisoft's business practices and the current trajectory of the Star Wars universe.

The Division 2 developer Ubisoft Massive is developing a new story-driven, open-world Star Wars game. That sentence alone is enough to give most gamers an idea of what the game could offer--wide exploration, lots of busywork and questing, tons of icons on a huge map, grinding, and slick third-person action.

The Division developer Ubisoft Massive is making a new Star Wars game, Lucasfilm Games today confirmed.

Lucasfilm Games was only just resurrected, but the new label has been busy. First Lucasfilm announced a new Indiana Jones game is in the works at Bethesda's MachineGames. Now they've announced EA has lost exclusivity to the Star Wars license, and Ubisoft is jumping on board.

The new Ubisoft-developed Star Wars game will be an open-world title with story-driven beats. The Division 2's Julian Gerighty will be the creative director on the project, and the Star Wars game is being developed in Ubisoft Massive's proprietary Snowdrop engine--the same engine that powered The Division games.

According to now-deleted listings on retailer websites, the Mass Effect trilogy remaster will launch in early March.

EA plans to finish out its FY2021 timeline with a hefty catalog boost from BioWare. Retailers may have accidentally leaked a March 12, 2021 release for the new Mass Effect Legendary Edition, which is a strategic launch for EA. The remaster should launch before the Fiscal Year 2021 timeline ends on March 31, giving EA a few weeks of sales before the period closes. Big publishers tend to release games in Feb/March to help bolster Q4 sales, which typically slumps after the Q3 holiday rush.

Neither EA nor BioWare have officially confirmed a launch date for the remaster trilogy. Right now Spring 2021 is the targeted release. The trilogy is getting big upgrades for current- and next-gen hardware, including better frame rates, boosted resolution, and lots of optimizations and tweaks. EA also confirmed the game will receive free PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X upgrades.

Razer is being Razer with its new Project Hazel, a new gaming-infused N95 face mask for the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.

The new Razer Project Hazel is a full plastic N95 face mask that features a silicone membrane that makes a seal over the wearers' nose, chin, and jaw. Razer has included removable filters on each side of the mask which also pack some (actually really nice looking) RGB lighting -- you'll stand out in the crowd, that's for sure.

This wouldn't be a Razer face mask without some cool tech, right? That's why Razer has used a built-in microphone and amplifier, which will help others hear you speak instead of being muzzled and muffled behind a traditional face mask.

First Disney resurrected Lucasfilm Games. Now Bethesda is developing a new Indiana Jones game.

Today Bethesda announced a curveball: They're making a new Indiana Jones game, and it's being developed by Wolfenstein reboot studio MachineGames. The new project will have an all-original storyline that deviates from the movies, and Elder Scrolls/Fallout creative Todd Howard will be executive producer on the game. Specifics, platforms, and launch dates are unknown.

Lucasfilm Games is back, but Disney still has no plans to develop its own games in-house.

George Lucas' gaming division has gone full circle. Lucasfilm Games was first established in 1983 as a way to bring Star Wars and Indiana Jones to the video game world. Then in 1990, Lucasfilm Games became LucasArts and put out games developed in-house. When Disney took over in 2013, LucasArts' dev teams were shuttered and development on games like Star Wars 1313 was cancelled. Disney instead licensed these properties out; companies like EA made the games now, and Disney collects royalties.

Now the Lucasfilm Games brand has been resurrected. It's just a name change, though, and Disney won't be paying the big bucks to fund first-party games. There's no LucasArts or Lucasfilm Games development teams. IPs like Star Wars and Indiana Jones will continue to be licensed out to external studios who will pay for the bulk of development, publishing, and shipping of games.

Today Sony confirmed a few launch windows for PlayStation 5 games, including Square Enix's big new action RPG Project Athia, Capcom's new Pragmata IP, and other PlayStation exclusives.

Sony's recent CES 2021 livestream locked in a few launch windows for key first- and third-party PS5 games. According to the disclaimer at the end of the game sizzle reel, Project Athia, the ultra-fast and chaotic new action RPG from Final Fantasy XV developer Luminous Productions, is set to release in January 2022. The two-year exclusivity deal Sony signed will keep Athia off of Xbox for at least 2024. Project Athia will also come to PC though.

Capcom's new cerebral IP, Pragmata, has also been delayed to 2023 and will likely be exclusive to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S hardware.

Poland's Office of Competition and Consumer Protection has opened a formal investigation into CD Projekt S.A. for Cyberpunk 2077's performance.

Right now CD Projekt is in hot water. Five separate U.S.-based law firms have filed class-action lawsuits against the company for possibly misleading investors. Cyberpunk 2077's poor PS4 and Xbox One performance has caused massive controversy, and shares have dropped 33% since the game's release. Now Poland's Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, the country's FTC-equivalent consumer protection agency, is now scrutinizing the company.

The news comes from Polish newspaper Dziennik.pl, who contacted the regulatory body and confirmed key details about the investigation. The office has contacted CD Projekt to see what steps it's taking to fix Cyberpunk 2077 for consumers, based on the responses, it will determine whether or not the company should be punished.

Today Pennsylvania-based law firm RM Law announced it has filed a class-action suit against CD Projekt S.A. for allegedly misleading investors and consumers over Cyberpunk 2077's performance.

Investor rights attorney office RM Law joins four other law firms in suing CD Projekt Group for possible securities fraud. The suit alleges that the company purposefully misled or failed to disclose key information surrounding Cyberpunk 2077's dismal PS4 and Xbox One ports. The game's low-end performance led to controversy, triggering mass refunds and removal from the PlayStation Store as well as a substantial drop in CD Projekt S.A. share value. Shortly after, CD Projekt executives took a conference call where they admitted to neglecting and hiding Cyberpunk 2077's last-gen gameplay from the public and investors.

CD Projekt is now being sued by five U.S. law firms:

Today LG confirmed it will release a Stadia app on its new smart TVs, bringing game streaming to a fleet of higher-end displays.

In an effort to underline its commitment to gaming, LG plans to roll out a Stadia app for its smart TVs in late 2021. The app will be available to download from the LG storefront for the "latest webOS smart TVs." A list of exact compatible models wasn't outlined in the press release.

This could help catalyze the fledgling game streaming market. Stadia and other game-streaming services like Amazon's Luna and Microsoft's Project xCloud have yet to take off due to issues like latency and network data caps. The inclusion of Stadia on LG's smart TVs won't alleviate these issues day one, but it will help push adoption during the critical introduction phase. Instant, console-free gaming could become a powerful alternative to buying expensive hardware.

Microsoft has lofty ambitions to take over Western RPG gaming. Now we know of another big project in the company's first-party arsenal, and it's from the Wasteland devs at inXile.

Microsoft has a ton of RPGs in development right now. Obsidian is making new games including the new fantasy game Avowed and possibly The Outer Worlds 2. Bethesda is flexing with Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI (and maybe even Fallout 5). PlayGround Games is working on Fable 4. Now we're getting clues about inXile's new project.

According to a new job listing for a Senior Gameplay Designer, inXile, the studio known for the Wasteland series, is making a new first-person shooter RPG.