Gaming - Page 498

The recent server hack delays one of CD Projekt RED's most important events: Its annual earnings reports.

The malicious cybersecurity intrusion has set CD Projekt RED back quite a bit. The hack blocked developers from working on Cyberpunk 2077's anticipated Patch 1.2 for consoles and PC, delaying the big update into late March. Now the hack is also affecting how CDPR talks to investors.

In a recent press release, CDPR says it has delayed its yearly earnings report from March 30 to April 19, citing the hack as the main reason.

Take-Two Interactive CEO Straus Zelnick says the company won't start releasing a ton of next-gen remasters, and re-releases will still be additive to its slate of new IPs, annual games, and in-development titles.

Remasters are a great way to capitalize on a new console generation. Take-Two knows this quite well; they've released GTA V on Xbox 360/PS3, and again on Xbox One/PS4. Now the billion-dollar GTA V is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles with significant upgrades. But Take-Two doesn't want to saturate the market with remasters. Company CEO Strauss Zelnick affirms their remasters are more specialized games with dramatic improvements (case in point: the recent Mafia trilogy re-release).

At a recent Morgan Stanley conference, Zelnick says remasters won't become a bigger part of their business despite the new console generation. Greater care will be put into any re-releases, and these older games are additive to the company's current slate of games--a massive pipeline of 93 titles across mobile, consoles, and PC.

Watch Dogs Legion's online mode has been delayed on PC, but will arrive on consoles next week, Ubisoft announces.

The anticipated online mode for Watch Dogs Legion is coming to PS4, Xbox One, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S consoles on March 9.

The mode is standalone, not unlike GTA Online, complete with seasonal objectives that rotate over time. The main drawing point is the online co-op that lets players team up to take on missions with emphasis on stealth, all-out chaos, and hacking.

A new Dungeons and Dragons RPG is currently in development from a Counter-Strike veteran team that's helped Valve over the last few years.

Wizards of the Coast is pushing more video game adaptations in key franchises, including Magic The Gathering, a new interesting sci-fi IP, and even Dungeons and Dragons is getting new titles. In fact, a new open-world third-person AAA D&D game is currently in the works from Hidden Path, a Washington-based developer that has collaborated with Valve for some time. Hidden Path helped Valve make Counter-Strike Global Offensive for consoles, and even helped released Age of Empires II HD.

"We are in development on a AAA, third-person, open-world fantasy RPG that will be taking place inside the Dungeons & Dragons franchise," reads a recruitment call from Hidden Path's Twitter account.

Razer has just unveiled its latest gaming chair, a tweaked version of its Razer Iskur gaming chair that drops the black-and-green design everyone knows and loves from Razer with a new all-black Iskur gaming chair. Check it out:

The new Razer Iskur all-black gaming chair costs $499, the same as its black-and-green sibling with the same ergonomic lumbar support system, the usual Razer styling and quality, and more. There's multi-layered synthetic leather, high density foam cushions, and 4D armrests.

You're paying $500 for the Razer Iskur which is in the same territory as Secretlab's premium and very, very comfy TITAN chair. If you're sitting in your chair all day and all night long working or gaming or doing everything in between, and didn't want the green-and-black style that Razer is known for, then the all-black Iskur gaming chair could be the one for you.

AMD has just announced that Resident Evil Village and its ray tracing turned on will require an RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card -- skipping over the just-announced Navi 22-based Radeon RX 6700 XT.

AMD tweeted out one of the most lowest-quality, heavily-compressed videos showing off the next-gen ray tracing graphics with Resident Evil Village on Twitter. On AMD's own website it states that you'll require a Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card for ray tracing being turned on, but you'll only need an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 processor.

We don't know if NVIDIA will have RTX ray tracing inside of Resident Evil Village, but I'd dare say that if that happens it'll be many months before GeForce RTX owners will have it enabled. AMD will also have its own FidelityFX features inside of Resident Evil Village, which is part of their collaboration with Capcom.

Max Payne, Alan Wake, and Control game developer Remedy Entertainment outlines its future plans for new titles, showing a very busy slate for the Finnish studio.

Remedy is currently working on five different projects across four teams. The games are a mix of live service and traditional single-player based experiences on the full AA and AAA spectrum. Remedy CEO Tero Virtala discussed future plans with GamesIndustry.biz, outlining what we can expect from the studio in the next few years.

Of the five projects, two of them are major games. The team behind Control is currently laying the foundation for Remedy's next AAA title, but details are quite sparse. We do know that Remedy's Sam Lake has finished the first draft for this next-gen PS5, Series X game, however.

Nintendo is enjoying astronomical success with its Switch family of hardware, but the specter of its past failures (like the Wii U) haunt the company. That's why Nintendo never rests and is continually planning on The Next Big Thing.

In a recent interview with Nikkei Business, Nintendo CEO Shuntaro Furukawa highlights the intense pressures of the entertainment industry. Unlike the affable Phil Spencer, or the smiling Jim Ryan, Furukawa expresses that every year is faced with anxiety and worry of falling behind--but this concern of failure propels Nintendo forward. The never-ending quest for innovation and unique experiences sets Nintendo apart from its peers, but this focus comes at a cost, one that executives must shoulder as they lead the company through the present while trying to lay the foundations for the future.

"Not matter the hits, in the entertainment business people someday do lose interest. Up until now, we have repeatedly had the experience of our business taking a nosedive," Furukawa said.

Microsoft's $7.5 billion acquisition for ZeniMax Media has apparently been approved by worldwide regulators, closing one of the biggest entertainment mergers in the history of the games industry.

The Microsoft x ZeniMax merger has apparently gone through. Providence Equity, the main stakeholder in ZeniMax Media, has listed ZeniMax as a "realized" investment on its portfolio webpage.

This essentially confirms a deal has gone through. Investments are listed as either active or realized; when an investment is listed as realized, that means the stakeholder has made a profit by selling the investment stake for more money than it was purchased for. Conversely, an active investment means no profit has been made yet. As part of the acquisition, Microsoft promised Providence a six-fold return of their initial ZeniMax Media investment.

Valve's failed DOTA card game has been put on ice, and is now free-to-play on Steam.

Artifact is officially dead, and Valve has cancelled all plans on a reboot. The reason? Artifact's playerbase simply didn't pick up, and Valve is no longer wanting to invest resources or manpower on the game (they're working on other things, including more Half-Life games). As a result, Valve has made Artifact completely free-to-play and removed all microtransactions from the card game. When's the last time you saw a publisher do something like that?

Ubisoft Massive is working on new ray-traced audio systems in its proprietary Snowdrop Engine that will boost immersion in new games like Star Wars and its Avatar saga.

Ubisoft's Massive Entertainment studio recently posted up a rather technical article on Snowdrop's new audio optimizations, and how the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles will significantly improve how audio is not only streamed, but processed, by the engine itself. Right now Massive is working on two major titles--a new Star Wars open-world game, and an Avatar project--that will utilize these next-gen Snowdrop upgrades.

According Snowdrop Audio Architect Robert Bantin, the Navi RDNA 2.0 GPU in the PS5 and Series X will help free up the CPU for other tasks. Massive now has access to real-time ray-traced data generated by the GPU, which can be used to bake in audio without hitting the CPU. So certain sound effects are now "free" and won't bog down the 8-core Zen 2 CPUs in both systems.

Rockstar and 2K Games parent company Take-Two Interactive hints more $69.99 games are on the way, but doesn't say which titles will get the price hike.

A major criticism of the new PS5 and Xbox Series X generation is pricing. Next-gen games now cost $69.99, and everyone from Activision, Sony, and even Square Enix are raising prices. Take-Two Interactive was among the first to charge $69.99 for its annualized NBA 2K21 sports game, and this trend should continue for other titles from the publisher.

In a recent Morgan Stanley conference, CEO Strauss Zelnick re-affirmed the publisher's stance on the price jump. Zelnick says consumers were prepared for the $10 increase, but not every game would cost $69.99; just the ones that provide tremendous value and replayability (like, say, Grand Theft Auto V's upcoming next-gen version?).

Blizzard plans to allow modding in the new Diablo 2 Resurrected remaster, but it may be quite limited and some high-profile mods probably won't work.

D2R's new Battle.net framework will make the remaster much more secure and prevent hacking, but it'll also be a headache for modders. The remaster's enhanced graphics engine is built on the existing framework of the original game, but the servers have been updated. D2R isn't running the legacy Battle.net online infrastructure and has moved to the Battle.net 2.0 network.

As a result, some of D2's biggest mods like Path of Diablo and Project D2 probably won't work. These mods have massively expanded the original games with lots of QoL improvements like shared stashes, as well as fundamentally changing core gameplay with new skills and unique additions. The mod creators warn gamers not to expect compatibility, and it's likely these mods will be exclusive to the legacy Diablo 2 versions. Blizzard promises to leave the older game alone, though, and the base Battle.net system will remain as it is.

Bungie will start sharing more details on Destiny 2's development, including technical challenges and behind-the-scenes looks and discussions on iteration.

Curious about game development? Wonder how much effort and work goes into upkeeping a huge live service game? Introducing the Bungie Tech Blog, a new one-stop shop for Destiny 2's secret sauce. Bungie plans to reveal lots of interesting little tidbits on Destiny 2's dev process in the blog, ranging from design decisions to game mechanics and beyond.

The first blog entry focuses on rewards--which is admittedly one of the biggest pain points in the game--and in particular, how the team solved a particular Iron Banner bounty bug that prevented gamers from getting credit from kills. It's a pretty interesting look at what goes into squashing these kinds of bugs and how Bungie manages to keep all those plates spinning at once.

Mobile titan Zynga buys Torchlight developer Echtra Games to fuel new cross-platform gaming initiative.

Zynga, mostly known for social games like Words With Friends, plans to delve into the more mainstream gaming market. To help bring its ideas to life, Zynga purchased Echtra Games, who is known for the Torchlight series.

The deal is great for both parties. Echtra's latest game, Torchlight III, hasn't sold very well. With the backing of Zynga, Echtra can fuel new projects--including an upcoming RPG--and the social giant also benefits from the talent of a veteran studio. Echtra is led by Max Schaefer, one of the original heads of Blizzard North who had a hand in shaping the Diablo series, one of the most pivotal IPs in gaming history.

Blizzard confirms original Diablo II and Diablo II Lord of Destruction singleplayer saves can be imported into Diablo II Resurrected.

Holy grail hunters rejoice! Your existing D2 and D2 LoD singleplayer saves are compatible with the new Diablo II Resurrected remaster. Gamers can import their saves into the new remaster and pick up right where they left off.

When asked if original saves would be compatible with D2R, game producer Matthew Cederquist told IGN:

Yesterday, the Nintendo Switch turned four years old. The unique handheld-console hybrid has achieved thunderous success in this relatively small span of time.

The Switch is now four years old, roughly half-way into its lifecycle as Nintendo says. In a four-year span, the Switch has consistently become the best-selling system in the United States for months on end, breaking hardware (and software) sales milestones across the board. To celebrate the Switch's fourth birthday, we thought it prudent to take a closer look at its performance in the worldwide market.

After the dismal Wii U, the Switch is Nintendo's ultimate comeback story. The company has generated billions every year thanks to the lucrative Switch family (Nintendo made $9.9 billion in 2019 from the Switch). The secret of the system's success is that capitalizes on both the selling points of both the mega-popular Wii and 3DS handheld. Gamers have been tremendously receptive to the console-handheld's unique transforming form factor.

A new 4K-ready Switch model will release in 2021 with a refreshed OLED panel and 4K output for UHDTVs, sources tell Bloomberg. The system will also feature a dock upgrade.

Nintendo will release a new higher-end Switch handheld-console model this year to round out the billion-dollar platform family, production sources tell Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki. The new Switch will have three major improvements: Screen, resolution output, and a new dock.

The Switch will be upgraded from its current 6.2-inch LCD panel to a bigger 7-inch OLED screen, similar to the PlayStation Vita PCH 1000 series released by Sony. The new Switch's panel won't have a resolution upgrade and will stay at 720p as to preserve pixel density and maintain lower thermals.

It appears COVID-19 delay season has struck again, this time afflicting Capcom's latest mainline Resident Evil game.

Resident Evil 8 Village has been delayed from its original May 7 launch day to June 22, the latest April issue of Edge magazine says. The news was spotted on Twitter and could be a typo, or it could be a way to future-proof the printed materials ahead of an official Capcom announcement.

No details have been confirmed just yet and Capcom still lists the previously announced May 7 release date for RE8.

The new Diablo II Resurrected remaster will actually be separated into two test phases for multiplayer and singleplayer.

Everyone wants to jump back into Sanctuary and replay Diablo II Resurrected. Luckily, Blizzard is holding multiple technical alpha tests for the game, but we don't actually know when they'll take place or when invites are being sent out. But we do know there will be two tests: A singleplayer-only test that comes first, followed by a multiplayer test that stresses the new online Battle.net infrastructure.

"We're going to start with a single-player technical alpha, and then we'll have a second technical alpha after that, which is kind of multiplayer and stress testing," lead producer Chris Lena told PCGamesN.