Gaming - Page 517

As $70 becomes the new normal for next-gen games, Microsoft's Game Pass becomes an attractive alternative to full game purchases. Xbox exec Aaron Greenberg really underlines the value of the service with a simple, yet telling, response to the price hike.

Games are about to jump from $59.99 to $69.99, and they'll likely stay there for the new gen. Will Microsoft jump its games to $70? Arguably the company doesn't need to. Game Pass is sparking full game sales along with consistent monetization and long-term subscription revenues. If anyone could avoid raising prices, it's Microsoft.

At the same time, Microsoft has a vested interest in raising prices. Not only do they get more money per sale, but they also add more value to Game Pass by proxy. Higher game MSRP will push more users to Game Pass where they can instead lease and sample a collection of games for less cost. It seems like a win-win for Microsoft.

If I was someone with power at Sony, I would be pushing for some of these custom PlayStation 5 consoles to become real -- and more than just a beautiful 3D render.

Our friends at LetsGoDigital have got some beautiful photos from their in-house digital artist Giuseppe 'Snoreyn' Spinelli, who has got a beautiful PS5 Spider-Man Miles Morales Edition console. And man, does it look good.

The slick PS5 Spider-Man Miles Morales Edition console has been infused with the sleek design of the regular PS5, but has been splashed on both sides with the Spider-Man Miles Morales aesthetic -- with an entire spider web across the PlayStation 5 with a beautiful glossy finish.

The Xbox Series X|S' current 1TB expandable storage cards are expensive at $219, but Microsoft confirms multiple cards will be available eventually.

The Series X/Series S's internal 1TB SSD isn't actually 1TB; after formatting, it shrinks to 931GB, and drops down to ~800GB after OS and reserved space. That's enough for a handful of Call of Duty Warzone installs. Right now $219 Seagate expansion cards only option to increase the Series X/S's storage and maintain next-gen performance...but Microsoft says this will change in the future.

In a recent Major Nelson podcast, Xbox's Jason Ronald confirms more next-gen storage options are coming from other OEMs. We'll see more manufacturers roll out varying sizes and prices that all maintain and mirror the 2.4GB/sec speeds of the console's internal NVMe M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD. Among these should be options above 1TB and push into 2TB territory...but these could end up costing as much as the console itself.

As we predicted a long time ago, the PlayStation 5's overall shape and design is dictated by cooling. The console's rather massive 15 inch x 10 inch size allows ample real estate for critical cooling components like the big 120mm centrifugal fan and a unique heat sink design.

Today's PlayStation 5 teardown finally revealed the console's most important technical feat: Cooling. Sony spared no expense on this front. The company spent five years designing the PS5, two of which were spent designing the liquid metal compound solution, which can conduct 86% more heat and thereby significantly drop operating temperatures while under demanding loads. Liquid metal compound isn't much without a proper heat sink though; improved conductivity is meaningless unless you have a proper system in place to properly dissipate the heat.

Thankfully the PS5 also has a massive heat sink designed for this purpose.

It's official: The PS5 uses a new high-end liquid metal compound solution to significantly reduce operational temperatures under load.

Today's PlayStation 5 teardown reveals tons of info about the console's cooling solution. Mark Cerny wasn't kidding when he said the PS5's heat mitigation would make us "very happy". The system uses a massive dual-sided, 120mm diameter and 45mm thick intake fan that pulls air from both sides of the console in conjunction with a unique liquid metal thermal compound to keep the PS5 cool while under stressful loads.

The PS5 uses three main components to manage heat:

The PlayStation 5 teardown reveal is finally here. Now we get a proper look at the PS5's cooling solution.

The PS5 features a massive 120mm fan that can pull air from both sides of the console, a new teardown video reveals. The PS5's strange chassis is specifically designed to pull air in a certain way through the intake vents, and the powerful 120mm centrifugal fan is 45mm thick and features sharp fins to direct the airflow. The entire rear of the PS5 is devoted to heat exhaust.

The PS5's cooling solution is somewhat similar to the Xbox Series X's insofar as size, but not in specificity. The Series X's fan is 130mm and pulls air from bottom to top, and the PS5 pulls air from the sides to push out the back.

Activision plans to close a Blizzard studio in France that employees 400 people, sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

Activision's creeping control over business partner Blizzard has affected everything from games development, management shakeups, and long-term focus. This shift was slow, and accelerated back in 2018, the same year that Activision-Blizzard made a record $7.5 billion in revenue.

The new plan saw nearly 900 employees fired across non-game development divisions like marketing and HR. That money was taken and re-allocated into its new four-part plan, which emphasizes games development, live services, mobile ports, and engagement models over all things.

Microsoft's Phil Spencer delivers a grounded message about 8K gaming on the Series X, saying that it won't be a standard for console games for quite some time.

8K gaming takes and absolutely ridiculous amount of power. Technically it's possible, and our massive NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 review shows just how demanding gaming actually is--it chews through VRAM and processing power like it's nothing. The world's most powerful dedicated GPU can belt out 8K games at playable FPS, but shines with DLSS on.

The Series X's 12TFLOP GPU is powerful, but it doesn't come close to the RTX 3090. There's very little hope in 8K gaming being feasible on the console; if anything, expect to watch films at 8K resolution. In-game frame rates on 8K displays might dip tremendously and be complemented by big resolution upscaling to match. Thankfully, Microsoft knows 8K is a long ways away for consoles, and Phil Spencer tells consumers and gamers not to expect anything crazy from the next-gen Xbox on 8K TVs.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson teases that new advanced technologies like machine learning and enhanced AI will start showing up in next-gen PS5, Xbox Series X consoles.

EA's new experimental tech should start showing up in next-gen games, especially in newer titles like Battlefield 6, which will feature massive battlegrounds with dynamically-destructive environments. EA's new SEED R&D has been experimenting with new advanced tech since 2017 and has made major headway with things like the game streaming service Project Atlas.

Now in a recent interview with Protocol, EA CEO Andrew Wilson says other features like higher-end AI and machine learning will make a big difference for next-gen consoles: "What we've seen historically is that the overall strength of the console generation, both in hardware and software, is really built in the first couple of years."

Game Pass, the industry's most transformative new subscription service, is having a radical effect on Microsoft's gaming business. It's spiking game sales, improving discovery of titles, and boosting total games played.

Game Pass is so big for Microsoft that it's now the center of Xbox. The previous glue--Xbox LIVE--is just part of the infrastructure now, complemented by ancillary delivery mechanisms like Project xCloud and the ecosystem foundation of the storefront and online servers. Game Pass is the heart because it's where the content is stored; If Xbox LIVE and Project xCloud are the veins, Game Pass is the heart that pumps content, or Xbox's lifeblood, through the business model.

Since Game Pass launched in 2017, Microsoft has seen incremental gains in Xbox revenues. The service has been accretive on various levels to the business and as of FY2020, Xbox revenues hit $11.575 billion, the highest point in 6 years. We've heard some impressive stats from Microsoft, too; Game Pass is now at 15 million subscribers and counting. Now key execs are also sharing more important figures, including engagement levels, increases in overall play time, and experimentation.

Activision and Treyarch have just unleashed a fresh new Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War beta trailer, getting gamers ready for the new beta that kicks off this week. Check it out:

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War hype machine activated, with PS4 gamers getting first dibs into the Black Ops Cold War beta on PlayStation 5 for anyone who has pre-ordered the game. It will then hit open beta on the PS4 on October 10-12 before coming to the Xbox and PC for those who pre-ordered on October 15-16. Finally, the open beta on all platforms is between October 17-19.

As for the game, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War releases on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5 on November 13.

Ghost of Tsushima's new Update 1.1 massively expands the scope of Sucker Punch's samurai slasher, adding free four-player co-op and a NewGame+ option.

Sony's epic open-world samurai game is getting a big content drop on October 16. Ghost of Tsushima's new co-op Legends mode adds in two-player story missions set in a mythical world full of Japanese folklore, demons, and monsters. There's always four-player survival modes, and an upcoming raid. The online mode is free, but PS Plus is required to play, and there isn't any microtransactions.

Legends has four main classes:

Criterion's 2010 high-octane racer is getting remastered on all current-gen platforms, complete with boosted graphics, full DLC, and new features.

Today EA announced Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered will drop this November on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch. The remaster comes bundled with all previous paid DLC packs and extra content drops, as well as cross-play in multiplayer, which is hugely transformative for continued online play in EA's biggest games.

The remaster is being developed by Stellar Entertainment, the team behind Burnout Paradise Remastered, in association with ex-Criterion devs. Performance modes for Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered will vary platform-to-platform:

Call of Duty Mobile has been a tremendous success right out of the gate, amassing nearly half a billion dollars in revenues and taking the #3 spot in the U.S. in its first year of availability.

There's nothing like Call of Duty; the IP is a trend-setter and its annualized installments routinely rake in hundreds of millions in game sales and long-term monetization for Activision. Now with the new mobile-based Call of Duty game, Activision has expanded its focus to tap gaming's most lucrative platform. And tap it the company has; the free-to-play CoD Mobile has generated $480 million in microtransactions in its first year on the market.

According to analyst firm Sensor Tower, Call of Duty Mobile has made considerable revenues since releasing in October 2019. The game has earned about $480m in mTX spending and overall earnings peaked in Q2'20 during the coronavirus lockdowns. Downloads sit at about 270 million worldwide, but CoD Mobile is doing extremely well in the U.S., where it's taken the #3 top mobile shooter spot behind Fortnite (#2) and PUBG (#1).

Baldur's Gate 3's anticipated early access build will launch on both PC and Mac tomorrow, October 6 at 10AM PST, Larian today confirmed.

As part of early access, Mac gamers will have direct say in how Baldur's Gate 3 evolves over time. This is a pretty big deal as most early access titles just include PC gamers and leave Mac gamers out. Larian is using all feedback from core RPG fans to help solidify their next opus. Baldur's Gate 3's early access will include Act 1, but Acts 2-3 are still in development, and Larian expects the project to remain in early access for a year or so before it's ready for a finalized launch.

Here's a breakdown of what to expect with Baldur's Gate 3's early access build:

CD PROJEKT RED has taken to the official Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account to announce that Cyberpunk 2077 has gone gold.

The tweet is very light, simply saying: "Cyberpunk 2077 has gone gold! See you in Night City on November 19th!" If you aren't aware of what 'gone gold means', it's when a game has reached a stage when a master copy is sent out to be mass produced onto physical discs (think Xbox One and PS4).

In new reality, CDPR is probably cramming like all hell right now getting Cyberpunk 2077 polished every hour before November 19 on all platforms with those day one updates that we all know are inevitable.

It was just a few months ago that the installation size of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare tipped over 200GB, but with the recent huge Season 6 update that weighed 57GB on the PC -- the overall size of COD: MW is now tipping towards 250GB.

This has pissed off a lot of gamers, with 250GB SSD owners effectively forced to move the game off of their SSD and onto something bigger -- or upgrade. Even at launch Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was ridiculously huge weighing in at 175GB.

But after a few updates it passed 200GB, then 220GB, and now it is close to 250GB in size. Why? The game has the single-player campaign, cooperative Special Ops mode, and then the battle royale monster Warzone.

Sony's investment into console cooling has paid off big, and Japanese previewers say the PS5 runs cool and quiet under heavy load.

Japanese websites have gone hands-on with the PlayStation 5 and the initial results are stellar. Sites like Dengeki Online and 4Gamer both praise the system's heat mitigation while playing games like Godfall and Demon's Souls in 4K resolution. The PS5's fans are described as nearly silent and the vents themselves are cool to the touch--a stark contrast to the launch PS4 and PS4 Pro systems, whose fans rev up quite loudly when playing heavy-hitting games.

Sony has put tremendous money, R&D man hours, and planning into the PlayStation 5's cooling system. Earlier this year, console architect Mark Cerny said the PS5's heat management system would make us 'quite happy,' and the system's chassis has been specifically designed for maximized airflow.

Just like Elder Scrolls 6 and Starfield, ZeniMax Online's brand new IP is being built from the ground up with new engine optimizations.

ZeniMax Online, the dev behind Elder Scrolls Online, is currently working on a brand new IP. We've actually known about this for a while: the project was first known in 2018, it's likely another MMORPG, and Colin Campbell, who worked on Jedi: Fallen Order and Mass Effect, has signed up as a level artist.

Now we have a few more details about the project. According to ZeniMax lead graphics engineer Alex Tardiff, the new IP is being built in a fresh new games engine. "Not much to say about this yet, but it's been so much fun creating a brand new engine. With how rare this kind of thing is nowadays, I feel fortunate to be at this studio while we invest heavily in our own technology," Tardiff said on Twitter.

Payday 3 is being developed in Unreal Engine, and could make use of new UE5 optimizations designed for next-gen consoles.

A recent Twitter post re-confirmed Payday 3 will be powered by Epic's Unreal Engine, and that the project is still in design stages. It's possible Payday 3 could eventually transition to UE5 as a future-proofed game on next-gen consoles, complete with massively advantageous new developments like the Nanite system, Lumen global illumination, and efficient optimizations for the new PS5 and Series X SSD storage. Starbreeze already confirmed the game is targeting PS5 and Xbox Series X with a 2022-23 release date.

Payday 3 was announced in 2017, but the game is still in its design phases thanks to Starbreeze's financial troubles. This long development time has seen the project shift as Starbreeze doubles-down on gaming and the Payday franchise, which remains the singular IP and sole focus for the company's business (all other segments have been sold off to help reduce debts). In fact, Payday 3 is Starbreeze's last hope: if no contract is secured, the company may be forced to sell the IP.