Gaming - Page 499

A newly published Sony patent uses unique AR sensor technology to create controllers and peripherals out of everyday objects--including bananas.

Sony's new patent is rather bizarre and incredibly innovative. The patent is quite technical, but the gist of it is centered around VR/AR sensor device that essentially scans an object and uses machine learning not only to identify it, but use six-dimensional pose estimation to translate it into a peripheral. Theoretically this would allow gamers to use everyday household things like bananas to interact with and control video games.

FIG. 3 shows schematically an example of a video image of a banana being used as a video games controller;

Halo Infinite is basically a first-person shooter/RPG mashup with lots of replayability, but it thankfully won't feature any crafting systems.

Halo Infinite isn't just a game, but a platform that sets up the future of all Halo games. Infinite isn't just a name--it's a description of the game's emphasis on near-infinite replayability. That's why the sequel features open-ended exploration with a map screen straight out of a Ubisoft game, as well as upgrades. 343i wants to focus on engaging players and that means certain hooks are added, including online co-op, replayable missions, and discoveries in an open world. There's just one element that won't be included: crafting.

In a recent Halo Waypoint post, creative director Joseph Staten confirms Infinite won't have crafting. You won't spend time killing creatures in a never-ending quest for materials. The gameplay loop is predicated on action, not inane tedium or upgrade paths similar to Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

We've been reporting on Cold Iron's new Alien game for years now, and today it was finally revealed. Introducing Aliens: Fireteam, a new third-person co-op shooter that combines Left 4 Dead survival with Gears of War-style combat.

Aliens: Fireteam is a co-op third-person shooter where you take on hordes of merciless xenomorphs across four interwoven story arcs. Gamers can make their own marine across five different classes (Gunner, Demolisher, Technician, Doc and Recon) complete with special class abilities, RPG-style perk unlocks and buffs, 30+ weapon types including the iconic pulse rifle and 70+ modifications to adjust your strategies, and other customizations. Cold Iron previously reported the game would be an MMO, but the new trailer suggests co-op sessions are locked to up to 4-player fireteams.

Combat looks enthralling and mirrors Gears of War's brutal third-person shooter action. The devs promise over 20 variations of enemies, including 10 different xenomorph breeds like facehuggers, Praetorians, spitters, warriors and bursters , the creepy Weyland-Yutani synths from Alien Isolation, and other surprises. This is a live game with a strong emphasis on replayability and will have lots of recurring missions and objectives alongside a mainline campaign.

Square Enix is always on the forefront of next-gen technology and has showcased its prowess with some amazing tech demos. Now with the advent of PS5 and Xbox Series X console power, their talent can finally be unleashed, and we should see some big jumps in performance and quality with future games like Project Athia, Final Fantasy 16, and the anticipated Final Fantasy 7 Remake's second chapter.

Although Final Fantasy 7 Remake is getting re-released for the PS5 with upgrades like faster loading times, improved 4K textures/lighting, and a 60FPS mode, the game was built for the PS4 first. Square Enix didn't build the game from scratch specifically for the PlayStation 5. That'll change with Final Fantasy 7 Remake 2.

The developer confirms the next chapter will be made specifically for the next-gen PS5 and will push the hardware to new heights, likely with new optimizations like ray-traced reflections and lighting. Since FF7R was made in Unreal Engine 4, it's possible the second game could utilize Unreal Engine 5's new Lumen lighting and Nanite texture technologies.

Sony today announced it will stop renting and selling movies and TV shows on the PlayStation Store in 2021, one of the most widely-accessed digital marketplaces on the internet. It's possible Sony is preparing a new subscription-based streaming service for its own content brand.

In August, PlayStation owners will no longer be able to rent or buy TV shows or films on the PlayStation Store. On-demand content purchases will be discontinued. Sony says its closing this part of its business because most consumers are using subscriptions and streaming. This is a strange move considering Sony has its own entertainment production group (Sony Pictures Motion Group), and its content is sold on the PS Store. Removing this avenue of sales potential strongly hints Sony is following the consumer shift towards recurring subscriptions with its own bundled streaming offering.

Sony could replace this video storefront with its own Netflix-style all-you-can-streaming service. The company has a wealthy vault of content it could bundle into such a service. Sony Pictures Motion Group commands over 4,000 films, and Sony Pictures Television has roughly 270 shows in its catalog. Sony also has PlayStation Productions, a new label that will adapt key video game franchises into TV shows, starting with Twisted Metal.

Epic Games has bought Fall Guys developer Mediatonic for an undisclosed sum, solidifying the gaming titan's stable of talent.

Like Embracer and Microsoft, Epic Games is making big power acquisitions. First they bought Rocket League dev Psyonix in 2019, snapping up one of the most lucrative free-to-play games in the industry. Now they've bought Fall Guys, a massively strategic purchase that'll deliver untold engagement and monetization across multiple platforms.

For Epic , the timing couldn't be better. Fall Guys is about to cross over to every major games platform on the market, offering lots of microtransaction earnings potential. On the developer's side, nothing is changing at Mediatonic: Everyone will keep their jobs, and the devs now get the backing of a $17 billion dollar company. Fall Guys isn't being removed from Steam (yet?) and free content is still on the way.

The Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board confirms E3 2021 has been cancelled and the show will no longer be open to the public at the L.A. Convention Center.

The annual E3 tradeshow will once again skip a public venue, L.A. city officials reveal. As previous reports indicated, E3 2021 will now be a digital event and the ESA plans to pivot towards streaming for the first-ever remote E3 showcase. Although the public can't attend, the city of Los Angeles is working with the ESA to broadcast events from the LACC for June 15-17.

The report says that although E3 2021 has been cancelled, ESA may renew their license for E3 2022 or E3 2023, but nothing's been announced just yet. "Cancelled live event in 2021. Working with production team on broadcast options at LA Live/LACC. Working on 2022 & 2023 license."

Bandai Namco follows SEGA in pulling out of the volatile arcade business, and plans to sell all North American-based facilities to third-parties.

Casinos and arcade centers have been hit particularly hard by COVID-19, forcing renowned quarter-mavens like SEGA to sell off these once-profitable businesses. Today, Bandai Namco announced it will also sell its amusement operations business in North America:

"After careful examination of the Amusement Facilities Business in North America, the Company decided to transfer the business and withdraw from the business, as it expects that the difficult business environment would continue into the future and achieving cooperation between each business is difficult at present. The Group will still continue to engage in the business of selling arcade games in North America," reads a press release announcement.

Recent company documents and reports hint games publisher Deep Silver may be gearing up big games for 2021-2022, possibly including Saints Row V and even Dead Island 2.

While reporting on the recent news of Dead Island 2 possibly becoming next-gen exclusive, I found some interesting tidbits surrounding Deep Silver, its parent company Koch Media, and the Embracer Group. The info strongly suggests that big games are coming from Deep Silver in the 2021-2022 period.

First, let's take a look at what Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors said in a recent Q3 presentation. The company expects FY2022 to be its best yet because of "numerous significant releases towards the second half of the year." This aligns with what Koch Media, the parent company of Deep Silver, said in another presentation:

New job listings hint Dead Island 2 could skip current-gen PS4 and Xbox One consoles, and exclusively launch on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.

UK studio Dambuster Studios may have resurrected Dead Island 2 from development hell, but official news is still dead in the ground. The only real info we've gleaned is from presentations and job listings, the latter of which may hint at a next-gen focus for the zombie-survival game.

Multiple listings on Dambuster's career page are recruiting for an "established AAA title for next-gen consoles and PC." Many have assumed this is Dead Island 2, and it's pretty easy to see why considering one listing says the next-gen project is a sandbox game. Other listings confirm Dead Island 2 will have DirectX Raytracing support and that it's built in Unreal Engine 4 (which could be scaled to UE5 later on or even during mid-development).

Battlefield 6 will be EA's most important game of 2021 and the publisher wants to make a big splash in the next-gen market. That's why multiple teams are helping with the larger-than-life shooter.

EA wants to make a statement with Battlefield 6, and on paper, the game looks to be the publisher's biggest game of 2021. It'll have real-time unscripted destruction physics, next-gen enhancements and visuals optimized for higher-end PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles (and PC, of course), and 128-player multiplayer.

The shooter, which EA promises will deliver "all-out military warfare," is due out in holiday 2021 and is expected to help push EA's FY2022 earnings to high points. To make good on these promises, EA has conscripted multiple internal studios to help work on various parts of the game. This is par for the course for EA games--for example, EA Motive helped make Battlefront II's vehicle combat--but Battlefield 6 is a much bigger investment.

Footage of FromSoftware's anticipated new open-world RPG Elden Ring has leaked out, but it's apparently quite old.

Right on the heels of the rumored Elden Ring event for March, some leaked internal footage of the mysterious game has surfaced and gives players an idea of what actual gameplay could be like. The video is off-screen footage and quite blurry, showing what looks like Witcher 3-esque horseback riding in a medieval fantasy world.

According to VentureBeat's Jeff Grubb, who previously hinted Elden Ring news could drop this month, the footage might be a year old and may not represent the current state of the game. The internal reel is also much longer than the brief seconds-long clips being passed around on social media.

Halo Infinite is shaping up to be the ultimate, never-ending Halo, complete with tons of adventures, exploration, and discoveries. 343i gives more clues on what lays in wait for gamers in 2021.

Halo Infinite is basically an RPG that's more similar to Ubisoft games than linear campaigns. It has an online live campaign with co-op and a strong emphasis on replayability, complete with enemy skirmishes, missions, and tons of stuff to explore and unlock. Halo has always had little discoveries and secrets peppered throughout the campaigns, but Infinite will take things to a new level.

In a recent Halo Waypoint update, 343i teases Infinite's new playground and promises unique opportunities for discovery. Not everything will be on the ground; some things you'll have to fly to using vehicles like the Banshee.

Amazon reveals its Twitch Prime freebies for March 2021, and the offering includes one of the most visceral indie games ever made.

Prepare yourself for penitence! Blasphemous, the brutal platformer from The Game Kitchen, will be available free for all Amazon Prime subscribers on March 1. Just link your account to Twitch Prime to unlock this stylish, blood-soaked indie.

While you're at it, be sure to grab the huge SNK game pack while it's still free. The collection includes a ton of classic games from franchises like Metal Slug, Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, and Samurai Shodown. The SNK pack will be available free until March 31.

Sony plans to unlock the PlayStation 5's expandable SSD storage slot this summer, sources tell Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki.

The PlayStation 5's limited storage is a pain point that's caused headaches since the system launched. The PS5 console ships with a 825GB PCIe 4.0 SSD, but only 667GB of it is usable. That's not much considering games like Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War and Cyberpunk 2077 take up over 100GB a piece.

Luckily, the console has an expansion slot that supports high-end PC-grade NVMe PC SSDs, but the M.2 port is currently inactive because only specialized premium drives will work with the console. The PS5 requires expansion SSDs that match or exceed the base 5.5GB/sec I/O speeds, which are made possible by the console's custom 10-channel memory controller. Sony cautions gamers not to buy NVMe SSDs for PS5 expansion until they formally announce compatibility lists.

Destiny 2 will get cross-play this fall, allowing Xbox, PlayStation, and PC gamers to play together in PVE and Crucible.

Bungie just outlined a bunch of content and changes coming to Destiny 2 in Season 14 and Season 15. The major changes for Season 14, which kicks off in May, includes tweaks across subclasses, the return of the classic Vault of Glass raid, and a new lowered power cap raise by 10.

Season 15 is where things really start to heat up. Cross-play is finally coming to Destiny 2 to complement cross-saves, and this feature will usher in a new level of consistent engagement across the live game. Bungie didn't give an exact date when cross-play will be implemented, but Season 15 should start sometime around mid-August of this year.

A new report from Bloomberg outlines what exactly went wrong with Stadia, painting a grim picture of overreaching, overspending, and mismanagement.

Just a year after release, Google has pulled the plug on Stadia and closed all first-party studios. The service is now a storefront platform rather than the innovative new ecosystem that Google promised would go up against PlayStation, Xbox, and the Nintendo Switch. That plan failed for many reasons.

Sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that Stadia was rife with mismanagement. Google shelled out millions acquiring studios and setting up first-party games (which were later cancelled, with the studios defunded and closed) in a whirlwind of spending. Rather than starting small, Google rushed the market with a pocket full of cash, overpromises, content, and innovative features.

Eager to break farther into mobile gaming, Square Enix is making a Final Fantasy 7 battle royale game for iOS and Android. Yes, really.

With Final Fantasy 7 The First Soldier, Square Enix hopes to tap the billion-dollar market that PUBG Mobile (and soon, Apex Legends) has been enjoying. The game is a mix of first-person and third-person shooter, complete with action-based combat straight out of games like Final Fantasy XV and FF7 Remake.

Classic magical spells like firaga, thundaga, blizzaga, and barrier also show in combat, offering a unique mix of unorthodox gunplay and wizadry. There looks to be both PVP chaos and PVE boss battles lifted straight out of the most recent Final Fantasy releases.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is coming to the PlayStation 5 as a next-gen re-release, but it won't be cheap.

Square Enix is bringing Final Fantasy 7 Remake over to the PS5 with high-end features like a 4K graphics mode, a 60FPS mode, overhauled texture, lighting, and weather effects, and ultra-fast loading via the system's 5.5GB/sec PCIe 4.0 SSD. Sadly, the publisher is also embracing the new $69.99 standard for next-gen games.

The company's storefront confirms the new $69.99 price tag, and we should expect new mainline Square Enix titles to adopt this pricing on next-gen hardware (although Outriders, the new game from People Can Fly, is $59.99 on PS5).

March 2021's free PlayStation Plus lineup was just revealed, and it's one of the best in the service's history with Square Enix's blockbuster Final Fantasy 7 Remake headlining the collection. There's just one small catch.

Starting Tuesday, March 2, PlayStation Plus owners can grab the massively popular Final Fantasy 7 Remake for free. This is the PS4 version, though, and won't include any upgrades. In fact, the free PS Plus version isn't eligible for FF7 Remake's free PS5 upgrade when it releases on June 10, 2021.

If you download FF7R on PS Plus, the only way you can play it on PS5 is if you re-buy the new next-gen Final Fantasy 7 Integrade re-release. It's a bit of a bummer but the upside is your PS4 saves can cross over to the PS5 version.