Gaming - Page 511

Crytek hyped up but didn't really seem to hit any memorable home-run from Crysis Remastered, but the developer isn't just sitting on its hands right now.

According to a new job listing on the official Crytek website, they're hiring new staff for a new AAA game that is currently in-development. One of the new games is Crysis Next, which has been teased as a next-gen "free-to-play Battle Royale game where 100s of players collide in the fast-paced combat".

The job description teases: "Crysis Next is a free-to-play Battle Royale game where 100s of players collide in the fast-paced combat. Visual customisation, adaptive Nanosuit powers and visually spectacular combat in an immersive world create the ultimate live streaming experience".

Halo: Infinite's new controversial armor coating system will be the primary form of monetization in the game (which isn't a surprise).

Long ago, we predicted Halo: Infinite would be monetized with optional in-game cosmetic skins. According to 343i community manager John Junyszek, this microtransaction store will include vehicle/weapon skins and armor coatings--a new seven-layer color scheme system that's similar to Destiny's armor shaders.

"Although moving away from the old color system was a tough call, it has allowed us to go into greater detail and variation with armor color, materials, patterns, etc. You are going to look great in Halo Infinite," Junyszek said.

CD Projekt RED has one goal with Cyberpunk 2077: To make a generation-defining game of immense high quality. The studio is willing to do anything to achieve their goal--including delaying the game three separate times.

In a recent investor's call, CD Projekt RED business exec Michał Nowakowski said something interesting about Cyberpunk 2077's most recent delay. CDPR wants to maximize polish so the game shines bright enough to hit a 90+ Metacritic rating. CDPR has previously said Cyberpunk is "better than Witcher 3 in every way", a bold statement. Witcher 3 has a 90+ Metacritic rating and has significantly boosted CDPR's revenues every year since its 2015 launch.

"So, when it comes to Metacritic, we continuously aim at a 90+ game, so nothing has changed here; this remains the goal and, as Adam mentioned, this is actually the main reason for postponing the release," Nowakowski said.

Halo: Infinite's development seems more rocky now that studio head Chris Lee has left the project.

The next-big Halo game may be buckling under its larger-than-life ambitions. Halo: Infinite isn't just a game, but a platform that will put an end to all future numbered Halo sequels. It's also a FPS-RPG with live service drop-in co-op. This kind of game takes lots of work--and to make matters worse, 343i is crafting the game alongside the brand new Slipspace Engine. This complexity has led to a delay into 2021.

Infinite's issues have led to various departures from 343i. First, creative director Tim Longo left 343i in August 2019. Now studio head Chris Lee has moved on from Infinite as well, saying the the project is in good hands.

Although it's a launch PS5 game, Demon's Souls won't support ray-traced visuals due to resource allocation.

The PS5 is capable of pushing ray tracing thanks to its onboard Navi RDNA 2.0 GPU, but that doesn't mean every game will utilize it. Remember devs are in full control over how to use next-gen power. Some games can hit variable perf targets like 4K 60FPS, or 4K 30FPS, or 1080p 60FPS with ray traced effects--ray tracing typically comes with a specific performance cost that takes a bite out of resolution and FPS.

Next-gen boosts power significantly and gives devs more tools to work with, but resources are still limited. That's the case with Demon's Souls, which doesn't support ray tracing because of the performance hit. In short, Sony Japan Studio didn't enable ray tracing because it'd take away from other features.

Cyberpunk 2077 was delayed because CD Projekt RED has to optimize it on 9 different platforms, including current-gen hardware that poses 'unique challenges'. They want to avoid that with future games.

In a recent investor's call, CDPR co-CEO Adam Kicinski says the developer's upcoming projects will skip PS4 and Xbox One in favor of next-gen consoles. Considering CDPR takes 4-5 years to develop its games, this makes sense.

"We are releasing a game which is, to be honest, a next-gen game, and we're preparing it for fairly old machines, which poses certain unique challenges that won't occur in future projects - at least in the next one," Kicinski said in the call.

Ark: Survival Evolved is one of the few "wow" moments on the Xbox Series X, and the next-gen optimizations are a radical transformation from the base game.

Ark just got a major overhaul patch in preparation for the Xbox Series X, and in short, this is the way the game was meant to be played. The game shines on the Series X with massively improved shadows, lighting effects, draw distances--you name it and it simply looks better on the next-gen Xbox.

Gamers can now hit up to 4K 60FPS in-game, complete with significant overhauls in shadowing, HDR, post-processing effects, and tons of different settings that run on the Epic preset. Loading has also been boosted by 7-fold thanks to the Series X's high-speed 2.4GB/sec PCIe 4.0 SSD and DirectX 12-accelerated APIs.

Dutch courts at The Hague have ruled that unregulated lootboxes violate country-wide gambling laws. Now courts will punish Electronic Arts millions of Euros unless it removes lootboxes from FIFA Ultimate Team.

EA will face fines of up to 10 million Euros unless it pulls lootboxes from its FIFA games, city courts at The Hague, Netherlands have ruled. The case was initially sparked by regulatory body the KSA, who oversees all games of chance and gambling in the UK and Netherlands. The KSA investigated lootboxes in 2018 and found that EA's monetization tactic broke the country's gambling laws. In short, EA needs a license in order to sell lootboxes in its games. If it doesn't acquire one, it has to pull FUT packs from FIFA--a move that will put a dent in the company's billion dollar yearly revenues.

If EA doesn't remove the lootboxes nor acquire a license, then it can be fined up to 10 million Euros. The fine is technically for 5 million Euros, but it's doubled across EA's Swiss branch and the company's Redmond-based HQ in the United States.

Ubisoft has delayed both Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six Quarantine to its FY2022 timeline, which lasts from April 1, 2021 - March 31, 2022.

Today Ubisoft confirmed two high-profile AAA games will skip its FY2021 slate: Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six Quarantine have been backdated to an unspecified period. Both games were delayed due to coronavirus work-from-home measures that have disrupted development. Works are no longer making games in offices and must work remotely, which is tough to do for a global company like Ubisoft.

FY2021 was to be Ubisoft's most ambitious year for game releases, however the delays won't significantly impact expected yearly earnings. After the delays, Ubisoft now expects FY2021 net bookings to sit between 2.2 billion Euros (-6.8%) and 2.35 billion Euros (-11.3%). Operating income is expected to hit between 420 million Euros (+5%) and 520 million (-13.3%).

Activision has just dropped the latest and final Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War PC trailer, detailing the very best version of the game. Check it out in all of its 4K glory:

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will be on virtually all consoles including the next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles, but the PC version will be the most special. Uncapped frame rates, Ultra-wide and multi-monitor support, 4K ray traced graphics, and most importantly -- NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) support.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War drops on Battle.net for PC gamers, and available online and in physical form on consoles on November 13.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is right around the corner, but you'll need to prepare your storage for a huge 250GB installation if you want the entire experience with 4K ray traced graphics.

At a minimum you're going to need an Intel Core i3-4340 or AMD FX-6300 processor, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 / GeForce GTX 1650 or AMD Radeon 7950 graphics card. You'll need 50GB of storage minimum for the multiplayer, and 175GB for all game modes in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

The recommended specs see you needing a higher-end Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X processor, 12GB of RAM, and then an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 / GTX 1660 SUPER or an AMD Radeon R9 390 / RX 580 graphics card.

NBA 2K21 is shaping up really, really well on next-gen consoles with 2K Games unleashing a new trailer showing gameplay footage from the game on one of the next-gen consoles. Check it out:

You can see that there's tons of graphical improvements, but those instant load times are out of this world good. 2K Games says that it has next-gen lighting, textures, physics, animations and more than push the "visual presentation to the bleeding edge" in NBA 2K21.

NBA 2K21 drops on Xbox Series X and S on November 10, and on the PlayStation 5 on November 12 in the US and November 19 in Europe.

Sony has significantly boosted its FY2020 gaming sales revenue projections by nearly $1 billion as software sales continue to spike.

In its latest Q2'20 earnings report, games titan Sony has raised its total fiscal year Games and Network Services sales earnings targets by 100 billion yen ($945 million as per Q2 exchange rates). Sony now expects gaming to earn 2.6 trillion yen ($24.57 billion) in FY2020, a rather sizable 35% increase over FY2019's performance.

This substantial increase will be driven by strong software sales, Sony predicts, as well as in-game purchases in titles like Genshin Impact, the latest free-to-play Chinese sensation that's now generated nearly $250 million in its first month.

As more gamers eye the next-gen PS5, Sony's PS4 shipments are starting to dwindle.

Sony's PlayStation 4 console has now shipped 113.8 million units worldwide since its launch in November 2013, the company reports in its latest earnings filings. Overall, console shipments are dropping considerably in the PS4's seventh year. The PS4 sold-in 1.5 million units in Q2'20, Sony reports, a 46% year-over-year reduction. This is the lowest Q2 for PS4 shipments since the system launched all those years ago.

Sony has currently shipped 3.4 million PS4s throughout FY2020, which is likewise the lowest performance in combined Q1 and Q2 sales since the console's initial 2013 release. PlayStation 4 console hardware sales made up 20% of the gaming segment's Q2 revenues, or $960 million (101.586 billion yen), a revenue decrease of roughly 20% year-over-year. This makes sense given the lower hardware shipment drop.

Rapper Travis Scott, Sony's new creative partner, introduces a dramatic new advertisement for next-gen PlayStation 5 gaming.

Sony rolled out its new PlayStation 5 launch ad that makes some pretty big claims. There's talk about pushing boundaries past current-gen gaming as part of the new Play Has No Limits tagline. Admittedly the footage feels more like a motivational video on YouTube than an ad for a new console.

The biggest takeaway from the trailer is how Sony is pushing a new era of gaming with hardware and peripheral innovations. The PS5's DualSense controller opens new doorways to sensory interaction and play, giving games more immersive feedback in all types of games from shooters to racing games. The PS5's ultra-fast SSD ensures instant loading, and its higher-end Navi RDNA 2.0 GPU enables 4K 60FPS gaming. In short, console gaming will now look, play, and feel better than ever--something that's really dramatized in the latest ad.

Microsoft's Phil Spencer wants to embrace any and all successful gaming business models and help push new innovations in the industry space.

Xbox has transformed dramatically into a multi-platform ecosystem of hardware, games, and online services. The kind of forward-thinking that led to Game Pass, console-PC unification, and interwoven services isn't going to stop. According to Phil Spencer monetization, xCloud, free-to-play, premium games, Game Pass...all of these things will still converge to innovate and push the Xbox brand.

In a recent interview with Game Reactor, Spencer outlines where Xbox is and where it's going vis-a-vis business models. Spencer also says Microsoft doesn't mandate monetization in first-party games, which is interesting considering mTX is a big part of the live service/Game Pass symbiosis.

AMD officially unveiled their new RDNA 2 architecture with the new Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards in the last 24 hours, and now Microsoft is coming out big noting its next-gen Xbox Series X and S consoles.

Microsoft posted a blog on its Xbox Wire website, written by Technical Fellow Andrew Goossen and Director of Program Management Jason Ronald that congratulate AMD on the RDNA 2 unveiling and dive a little into how it powers the next-gen Xbox consoles.

In the post, Microsoft explains that the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles "are the only next-generation consoles with full hardware support for all the RDNA 2 capabilities AMD showcased today".

Sony's Jim Ryan confirms more studio acquisitions and buyouts will happen to boost PlayStation's first-party brand.

PlayStation's Worldwide Studios has swelled with acquisitions like Insomniac and Sucker Punch, both of which have pushed innovation with games like Spider-Man and Ghost of Tsushima. Will that spree continue? Microsoft's recent buyout of multiple high-profile AA studios and its huge $7.5 billion ZeniMax acquisition has gamers worried.

In a recent interview with Reuters, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan says that acquisitions will continue in a more discerning way. Sony will be more selective with its buyout offers and will only acquire studios that will organically fold into the existing PlayStation brand.

CD Projekt RED developers are working hard 100-hour work weeks to finish Cyberpunk 2077, the studio's biggest and most ambitious game to date.

Cyberpunk 2077 was recently delayed twice--first to November 19, and just today it was pushed back to December 10. This extra 21-day period will prolong the reported studio-wide crunch that demands employees work 7 day workweeks. Finishing up Cyberpunk 2077 is taking a heavy toll on CDPR's workers, who are now working overtime hours from home due to coronavirus.

Recent reports said devs are working 16 hour work days with no real end in sight. The crunch is expected to continue after the game's launch as more people work on the day one patch. Cyberpunk 2077 just went gold, but that doesn't mean the work is done, just that the game is playable from start to finish. There's still lots to do.

UPDATE: CD Projekt RED confirms this is the last delay for Cyberpunk 2077;

Cyberpunk 2077 has once again been delayed, and will now release on December 10, 2020.

Today CD Projekt RED announced their massive sci-fi FPS-RPG has been delayed 21 days to December 10, 2020. The reason? The developers have to test the game out on nine separate platforms across current- and next-gen hardware to ensure compatibility. To make things harder, they have to do the testing remotely from home. Cyberpunk 2077 is technically finished and has gone gold, but that doesn't mean it's 100% streamlined on every platform. It just means the game can be completed from start to finish.