Gaming - Page 506

Konami's latest internal reports reveal why the company hasn't invested strongly into Metal Gear Solid since 2015's MGSV.

Today Konami announced it's dissolving three of its production divisions in an effort to become more lean, reduce spending, and adapt to the new digital-based COVID-19 market. The truth is Konami has been doing this for a while, and it's a big reason why certain franchises like Metal Gear Solid have lapsed.

Prompted by a post on ResetERA, I took a look at Konami's company profile data and found sales data for the stealth espionage series. So far, Metal Gear Solid has sold 56.5 million copies worldwide since 1987, more than other IPs like Capcom's Street Fighter (which sits at 45 million). Even still, Metal Gear pales in comparison to Konami's real breadwinning IP, the billion-dollar titan Pro Evolution Soccer. To date, PES has sold through 110.4 million in its 25-year span. It's easy to see why Konami is playing favorites.

NVIDIA has just announced that it will be powering gamers in Australia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey with GeForce NOW "later this year".

In an announcement on the official NVIDIA blog the company explained that it has signed new telcos into the GeForce NOW Alliance with Turkcell, Zain KSA and Pentanet, these new companies join current GeForce NOW Alliance members in Softbank, KDDI, LG Uplus, Taiwan Mobile and GFN.RU.

NVIDIA reminds us that GeForce NOW brings real-time ray tracing to some of the biggest games in the market to underpowered PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, Android and iOS devices. The company adds: "It also offers an opportunity for the world's leading telecommunications firms to deliver high-quality, low-latency PC gaming to nearly any device from the cloud. These partners form the GeForce NOW Alliance, a partnership of operators using RTX Servers and NVIDIA cloud-gaming software to expand and improve cloud gaming globally".

A new Knights of the Old Republic RPG is reportedly in development, but unnamed sources say neither EA nor BioWare are involved.

Sources tell podcaster Bespin Bulletin that a new KOTOR game is happening, but BioWare won't be making it. The game is instead being crafted by a not-so-obvious studio as part of Lucasfilm Games' new Star Wars initiative.

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who has a close ear to the goings-on in the games industry, said in December 2020 that "nobody's going to guess right" about who's developing the sequel.

New reports say Chinese juggernaut Tencent is eyeing a billion-dollar acquisition of a U.S.-based gaming company. Who could it be?

Sources tell TMT Finance that Tencent is raising billions to buy out a new game company. Insiders believe Tencent could force a hostile takeover of Grand Theft Auto parent company Take-Two Interactive, or possibly make a deal to buy out EA.

The more likely scenario sees Tencent buying a South Korean developer, sources say. Targets include NetMarble, South Korea's biggest mobile game maker, and Nexon, the developer behind Dungeon Fighter. Tencent is already the third biggest shareholder in NetMarble with a 17.6% stake and could force a hostile takeover by acquiring more stake in the company. Tencent also has exclusive rights to publish Nexon's Dungeon Fighter in China, showing the giant has existing connections with both firms.

GTA Online's in-game microtransactions once again break the bank, cementing GTA V as one of the best-earning games of all time.

GTA Online's new Cayo Perico heist helped GTA V make more money in December than any other period in the game's 7-year history. The news is from analyst firm SuperData, who says December 2020 delivered record digital revenues for GTA Online that were higher than any other month since the mode's release.

The Skyblivion total conversion mod is making tremendous progress and looks absolutely enchanting in this new dev diary video.

Oblivion, arguably the best-looking Elder Scrolls game ever made, is getting rebuilt in Skyrim's game engine. A team of 50+ talented volunteers are breathing new life into these two beloved fantasy games as part of the hugely ambitious TES Renewal passion project. The Skyblivion mod aims to completely recreate The Elder Scrolls IV using Skyrim Special Edition mod toolsets, complete with custom assets as well as the original questlines intact.

The new dev diary video highlights environments, 3D objects, interiors, and quests, showing marked improvements and big strides in every way. The mod still isn't finished, though, and has some issues with the quests themselves. But according to the team, the end is in sight...yet there's no actual release date for the mod.

Yesterday Microsoft made a big mistake. The company tried to raise Xbox LIVE Gold prices by 50% and removed the 12-month option entirely, bringing Xbox LIVE Gold subscriptions to $120 a year. It failed spectacularly, and now Microsoft has pulled a 180.

Xbox LIVE Gold isn't getting a price hike after all. After severe backlash from an alienated fan base, Microsoft has cancelled its plans to raise Xbox LIVE Gold to $10 a month. Prices will stay the same at $9.99 for 1 month, $24.99 for 3 months, and $39.99 for 6 months. 12-month memberships are only available at retailers.

As an added apology to fans, billion-dollar free-to-play games like Fortnite and Warzone no longer require Xbox LIVE Gold in order to play. It's simultaneously an end of an era and the beginning of a new dawn for the subscription.

As promised, CD Projekt RED released the first major patch for Cyberpunk 2077 that fixes a ton of bugs and major glitches.

Cyberpunk 2077's new Patch 1.1 update is out now and it brings some big changes. The most substantial change is more streamlined memory allocation for consoles, which improves in-game performance on every level. It turns out 8GB of GDDR5 unified memory hamstrings developers in console games.

The update also eliminates any possibility of the save corruption glitch on consoles and PC. The saves will no longer get big enough to become corrupted and CDPR even "trimmed the excess size from already-existing saves." Sadly the saves that are already corrupted can't be fixed and will remain corrupted.

Vicarious Visions used to be an Activision studio, but now it's been absorbed by Blizzard. This actually makes sense; Vicarious Visions has been helping Blizzard with various projects for a while now.

Vicarious Visions, the developer behind Skylanders, the new Crash Bandicoot games, Tony Hawk 1+2 remasters, has been moved over to Blizzard. The studio had been an Activision subsidiary since 2005, but is now a part of Blizzard Entertainment and has been relegated as a support team for Blizzard's projects. This is somewhat likened to Sledgehammer's change from a fully-fledged Call of Duty studio to assisting Treyarch and Infinity Ward on the franchise.

The truth is Vicarious Visions has been working with Blizzard"for some time" and is now "fully dedicated" to future Blizzard projects. Vicarious Visions has been developing a Diablo II remake for some time, having taken over development from Blizzard's own main internal teams. Rumblings of a Diablo II remake/remaster have been heard for years now.

Cyberpunk 2077 was the biggest launch of all time in digital revenues and sales, analyst firm SuperData reports.

Cyberpunk 2077 has sold a whopping 10.2 million units digitally on PS4, Xbox One, and PC after refunds, becoming the biggest digital game launch in history. That's according to SuperData, whose latest report highlights monumental figures for CD Projekt.

"Cyberpunk 2077 had the biggest game launch of all time based on digital revenue and digital units sold (10.2M)," the firm writes. PC Gaming accounted for a whopping 80% of these game sales and revenues, which is to be expected as PC games are primarily sold through digital distribution.

Xbox LIVE Gold pricing is going up by 50%, and will now cost $10 a month regardless of what option you buy.

Today Microsoft announced a substantial price hike for Xbox LIVE Gold. 6 months of Xbox LIVE Gold now costs $59.99, the old cost of the 12-month membership. This is a 50% price jump that doesn't include Xbox's most popular Game Pass service--only multiplayer and an allotment of free monthly games are included.

Here are the new pricing tiers for Xbox LIVE Gold:

Capcom finally reveals Resident Evil VIII's release date, and it's a ways away.

Today Capcom confirmed a bunch of Resident Evil Village details that fans will appreciate. The game will release on May 7, 2021 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC, complete with next-gen upgrades. Anyone who buys a PS4 copy will also get a free PS5 copy, and the game will feature Smart Delivery on the Xbox One/Series platforms. This is well after Capcom's FY2020 period ends in March.

Resident Evil 8 will also be the first mainline RE game to utilize Capcom's new next-gen RE Engine upgrades. The game will be optimized to harness the power of the PS5 and Xbox SeriesX/S systems, complete with ray-traced visuals, ultra-fast loading, 3D audio support, smoother frame rates, and "hyper-detailed" graphics. Expect the game to hit native 4K on both machines.

With the new REVIII Maiden demo, gamers will finally get to see Capcom's new RE Engine technology shine in the Resident Evil series.

Capcom just surprise released a playable gameplay demo for Resident Evil VIIlage on the PlayStation 5. It's called Maiden, and it's a standalone experience with it's own story that doesn't follow Ethan's arc in the main game. Maiden takes place in the gothic nightmarish halls of Dimitrescu Castle (named after the tall vampire woman, Lady Dimitrescu) and was originally made as a visual demo. Capcom then tweaked it to be a playable puzzler with story elements.

Sadly the demo is exclusive to the PS5 and can't be played on the PS4, but it does give a sampling of the developer's next-gen games engine, complete with ray-traced lighting, 3D audio, and ultra-fast loading on the PS5's SSD. Think of Maiden as a playable tech demo of sorts.

Gabe Newell really likes New Zealand--and why not? There's a lot to like. New Zealand was one of the most successful countries in curbing coronavirus spread and no longer has to practice social distancing. Life has returned to some state of normalcy in the country, and now GabeN plans to stay there for good. Some Valve employees could follow him.

In a recent interview with New Zealand network TVNZ, Newell said that Valve developers want to join their boss and help develop games overseas. That doesn't mean the entire company will uproot from its Kirkland, Washington HQ and move to New Zealand, though.

"There's a lot of interest at a grassroots level inside of the company to have some people move," Newell said.

While some games-makers like SEGA and Square Enix are on shaky grounds, Capcom has massive confidence in its 2020-2021 earnings and just upwardly revised its forecast to new heights.

Capcom today announced it has raised its Fiscal Year 2020 earnings forecast by as much as 17%. Below is a quick breakdown of the revision, and the yen to USD conversions are based on the going rate for December 31, 2020, which represent Capcom's Q3 period. Note that these conversions do not reflect the actual future exchange rates:

Revised FY2020 forecast:

Valve's Gabe Newell says new games are in development, but how many of them will actually release?

We've known since 2018 that Valve has numerous unannounced games in development. One of these projects was Half-Life Alyx, the preeminent VR experience. Before Alyx, though, Valve had a handful of projects that fizzled out, including a Half-Life 3 prototype with procedural generation and even Left 4 Dead 3. These projects were cancelled because Source 2 wasn't ready yet.

"Valve has many projects in various stages of production at all times," read a job listing from 2018.

PUBG will soon evolve from a singular battle royale game into a fully-fledged franchise with multiple releases...including a horror title called The Callisto Protocol.

Krafton, the parent company of PUBG developer Bluehole, has lofty ambitions for the BR franchise. Soon the billion-dollar FPS will transcend into other genres and even other mediums. The South Korean giant plans to release a PUBG animated television series, live action films, and a number of new games--in short, they're going for the transmedia approach that Capcom, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony have embraced for long time.

Krafton CEO Kim Chang-han says there's a bunch of new PUBG games in development--at least three, in fact.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is getting an animated TV show sometime soon. Will it be hand-drawn, or CGI like the old-school Beast Wars show?

2021 will be a big year for PUBG parent Krafton. Not only is the South Korean titan planning a huge billion-dollar IPO that could value the battle royale-maker at over $27 billion, but the PUBG franchise will soon cross-over to other mediums. PUBG company CEO Kim Chang-han tells Bloomberg that he has big plans for transmedia ventures.

For instance, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is getting an animated series that will premiere on streaming services. A web-based cartoon is also in the works too. Farther down the line, Krafton has roadmaps for feature-length films and possibly live-action shows centered around the brutal survival franchise.

Battlefront 3 is reportedly in development for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, a new rumor alleges.

It's been a long time since the last Battlefront game. Right now DICE is busily crafting a true next-gen Battlefield game that leverages the full power of modern PC hardware and the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles. DICE's Frostbite engine is being re-tooled, optimized, and upgraded to show significant in-game enhancements for Battlefield 6, including massively improved destruction, faster loading times, AI-based machine learning, and 128-player multiplayer.

Apparently DICE isn't done with Battlefront just yet, though. A new rumor suggests EA will release Battlefront 3 by 2023 and that DICE is currently laying out the early plans for the sequel. Battlefield 6 comes first (as it should considering it's DICE's baby), and the new Star Wars game should explore new horizons not seen in the previous games.

Krafton, the parent company of PUBG developer Bluehole, plans to go public sometime in 2021 with an IPO. It could be the biggest in South Korea's history.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, the billion-dollar battle royale titan behind PUBG will hold an initial public offering and start trading on the Korea Stock Exchange. Krafton plans to hold the IPO in mid-2021, CEO Kim Chang-han said. Some brokerage firms value the gaming giant as high as $27 billion. For comparison, Activision-Blizzard, one of gaming's colossal earners, has a market cap of $71 billion.

Bloomberg notes that Krafton's IPO could be the biggest in South Korea's history; the record is held by Samsung, who generated $2.4 billion in a 2010 initial public offering.