Gaming - Page 520

Konami finally plans to unleash some of its IP treasure trove onto the PC platform...but hopefully they aren't just basic ports.

A handful of new Konami listings have popped up on the Taiwanese games rating board. There's four games in all for PC, one of which is a Castelvania + Contra retro collection that includes the first three Castlevania games (sadly no Super Castlevania IV or Dracula X) plus Contra and the excellent SNES shooter Super C.

Konami hasn't revealed any info on the games just yet, but expect them to drop on Steam sometime soon. Konami's latest financials saw profits drop by over 40% thanks to coronavirus closing its resorts and pachinko arcades. Digital gaming is still going strong and helped buoy this loss with stronger revenue spikes. Konami should lean into more re-releases and game launches to help offset COVID-19 interruptions, and this strategic PC bundle will help.

The expandable Xbox Series X/S SSD memory cards will cost $220, which is just more than half of an Xbox Series S console.

Best Buy listings confirm pricing for expandable 1TB SSD memory card storage will retail for $219 a piece, which isn't a terrible price for flash memory of this caliber (bear in mind Samsung's blistering-fast 980 Pro SSDs are $229 for 1TB capacities). It's also 73% of the Xbox Series S' $299 price tag, which is something to consider if you go the all-digital Series S route.

The listing confirms Xbox Series X and S consoles use PCie 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSDs on x2 lanes, which makes sense given the 4.8GB/sec compressed transfer speed caps. Remember that this memory is proprietary and specially-designed to run DirectX 12 APIs like DirectStorage, Xbox OS tech, and the new Velocity Architecture. Also remember the cards use a CFExpress cartridge with a smaller M.2 drive packed within. CFExpress is typically reserved for high-end digital photography and enthusiast-grade cameras.

Sony's first-party PC cross-overs are off to a good start as Horizon Zero Dawn moves over 700,000 copies on Steam in its first month.

According to latest findings from SuperData, Horizon Zero Dawn sold roughly 716,000 copies on Steam in August. This is up 50% from the estimated combined 477,000 copies Death Stranding sold on EGS and Steam. SuperData also notes Horizon's PC sales approached The Witcher 3's 2015 launch numbers while also handily beating Assassin's Creed Odyssey's PC debut.

The news bodes well for future PlayStation exclusives making the jump to PC. Sony recently confirmed that more PS4 games will jump to PC as it eyes continued back-catalog sales outside of the PlayStation console ecosystem.

Morrowind has absurdly long loading times on the original Xbox, sometimes lasting over a minute or more. Why? Bethesda ran out of memory and literally had to reboot the console as you played.

In a recent interview with Major Nelson, Todd Howard reveals why Morrowind's loading sequences are so ridiculously long on the 2001 Xbox. Howard was discussing the old days and how Bethesda worked with Microsoft to figure out lots of little tricks with the original Xbox. One of these tricks involved literally rebooting the console without the user even knowing.

"There's been great tricks that they taught us. My favorite one on Morrowind is...if you're running low on memory, you can reboot the original Xbox and the user can't tell. You can throw like a screen up. When Morrowind loads sometimes, you get a very long load. That's us rebooting the Xbox,"Howard said.

Now free from Activision's influence, a handful of ex-Blizzard developers join ex-CEO Mike Morhaime to make their own publishing label and game dev studio teams.

Today Blizzard co-founder and ex-CEO Mike Morhaime announced Dreamhaven, an ambitious new publishing label that houses two studios: Moonshot Games and Secret Door. Morhaime and his wife Amy are funding the label themselves, and a number of StarCraft, Warcraft, Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm vets have joined their ranks.

Morhaime says the main goal with Dreamhaven is to create a positive workplace that fosters creativity and frees developers from crushing crunch and financial pressures. You know, the exact opposite of what mainstream AAA game dev studios like Blizzard face under billion-dollar publisher rule. Dreamhaven is a haven and a beacon of hope in one, a place where devs can come and make their passions come to life without worry of over-monetization and constant obsession on metrics, service updates, and the other rigors of current Blizzard development.

Fortnite's removal on Google Play and subsequent one-year ban on the App Store has significantly dropped mobile revenues. Luckily console and PC earnings are skyrocketing to help offset these drops.

Fortnite's mobile microtransaction earnings have plummeted. According to SuperData, mobile earnings are down by over 62%, and daily active users are down by a massive 60% on iOS.

Console and PC earnings are on the rise to help equalize this loss. SuperData's report for August 2020 shows a sharp uptick in Fortnite's mTX earnings on these platforms driven by the new Marvel promotion. Fortnite's revenues for August are up 76% month-over-month which SuperData says "more than offsets falling mobile revenues."

Microsoft's new Xbox beta app for Android has an innovative new pre-loading feature that'll save you time and get you right into the game.

Game downloads are a pain and can interrupt your gameplay sessions. Fire up your console, pop in a game, and bam, a multi-GB update--or worse, you find out most of the game isn't even included on the disc. Luckily Microsoft has you covered with a nifty new convenience feature on the Xbox Android app.

The app now lets you download any digital game offered on the Xbox store. With a tap, you can tell your Xbox One or Xbox Series S/X console to download a specific game even if you're away from home. Of course, you have to actually own the game before you can play it. The store will verify ownership in two ways: Digital rights allowance that's tied to your account, and using the disc as DRM.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone Season 6 is right around the corner, with Activision releasing a new cinematic trailer to tease it. Check it out:

Warzone's exciting Verdansk map will be getting a big change, with an underground network of subway tunnels being inserted into the map which will change Warzone up in a big way. There's also some new operators, with the introduction of Nikolai and Farah.

As for the new operators entering the fray in Season 6, we can expect:

Bethesda won't be Microsoft's last purchase, company CEO Satya Nadella says.

Thanks to Game Pass and mobile expansion via Project xCloud, Xbox is quite important to Microsoft's service empire. With the service infrastructure established, Microsoft is aggressively investing in content to help spark digital revenues. Whether it comes from subscriber growth, full game sales, or monetization, Microsoft wants more. The main motivation behind the recent $7.5 billion Bethesda acquisition was to add more value to Game Pass.

Including ZeniMax and its eight studios, Xbox now has 23 first-party teams working on projects to boost Game Pass' value. The plan is to flood Game Pass with a multitude of varied content for subscribers, consumers, and gamers to enjoy, play, and pay for. Even with these impressive numbers, Microsoft says that it's always looking to swell its ranks and embolden its billion-dollar service ecosystem.

Ailing retailer GameStop saw a sharp 23% rise in share value on the back of new business restructuring reports.

Chewy.com co-founder Ryan Cohen has a plan to turn around GameStop's retail business. Instead of focusing so strongly on retail, Cohen advises GameStop to pivot towards ecommerce and become more like Amazon. Sources relayed the plan to Bloomberg, which sees GameStop selling most of its wares digitally via its online storefront.

Investors apparently agree with Cohen's plan. GameStop shares were up 23% to $10.65, the highest point since early 2019. Under his firm RC Ventures, Cohen currently owns 10% stake in GameStop and management is currently hearing out his plan.

Microsoft has no plans to disrupt ZeniMax's development teams, and promises it won't cut any jobs or interrupt development.

Microsoft says it has one clear goal with its recent $7.5 billion acquisition: To make ZeniMax the best it can be. After all, what's good for ZeniMax is now good for Microsoft. To make this happen, Microsoft says they will keep the established structure intact. The service giant plans to largely leave ZeniMax alone in this regard.

There won't be any reductions in dev teams, closing of studios, or immediate cancellations of in-development projects (at least at the beginning, but projects get cancelled all the time in the industry). Xbox's Phil Spencer says ZeniMax's 2,300-person workforce will be empowered, and that Microsoft plans to work individually with studios like Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, and MachineGames to garner feedback and open up resources.

Like a good mentor, Microsoft will show Bethesda how to grow and mature its live service business model, which represents its natural evolution as a games-maker.

Microsoft's recent $7.5 billion Bethesda buyout is a match made in heaven. Microsoft gets much-needed content for Xbox Game Pass, the subscription that's not just a service, but the center of Xbox as a whole. Bethesda gets resources, flexibility, and most importantly, access to Microsoft's potent service framework.

Microsoft doesn't just have a service empire--it has the service empire. Few companies on Earth have a better mastery of digital subscriptions, recurring revenues, and services. Xbox has naturally evolved from a console-first business into a service-first business, and now the Xbox brand is starting to mature. The Xbox LIVE online framework, Windows 10 unification, Project xCloud streaming, and on-demand Game Pass access across PC, consoles, and mobiles--all of this is a result of a service-first ecosystem.

Microsoft isn't playing by Sony's rules any more, and plans to conquer gaming by saturating the market with content. Now its 23 dev teams are ramping up projects to populate its console, PC, and service offerings.

Today Microsoft made a big move against its competitors. It bought Bethesda for $7.5 billion, acquiring titanic IPs like Fallout, Doom, and Elder Scrolls as well as studios like Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, Arkane, and more. This follows two years' worth of acquisitions for its Xbox Game Studios banner, which now sits at 23 studios compared to Sony's 15.

The idea here is Microsoft is buying up studios to add value to its cross-platform Game Pass service. The subscription is now so powerful it's defining the Xbox brand and has convinced Microsoft to pay triple for Bethesda than it did for Minecraft back in 2014. At the time of writing, Xbox Game Pass has more than 15 million paid active subscriptions, and grew nearly 5 million subscribers since April 2020.

Microsoft just bought Bethesda for $7.5 billion, but that doesn't mean all future games will be Xbox exclusives.

All of Bethesda's games are coming to Xbox Game Pass on Xbox consoles and PC, Microsoft confirms, but PlayStation gamers won't be locked out of future releases. Bethesda plans to honor pre-arranged exclusivity deals with titles like Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo on PlayStation 5. Microsoft also confirms that future Bethesda games will be released on other platforms on a title-by-title basis.

When asked about Starfield and other games coming to PlayStation, Xbox's Phil Spencer told Bloomberg: "We'll take other consoles on a case-by-case basis."

Xbox Game Pass subscribers have grown by nearly 50% in just 5 months, showing just how powerful the subscription service is.

Microsoft's Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions are so important they've become the center of Xbox. Consoles are just the delivery mechanism for Game Pass, which has in turn become the premiere delivery avenue for games and content. The value-oriented service now has 15 million subscribers, Microsoft confirmed, up nearly 5 million paid users since April 2020.

This growth is tremendous for the Xbox brand. As we've said before, Microsoft doesn't care all that much about hardware sales. It's doubled-down on services using Windows 10 PC-console cross-connectivity and Xbox LIVE as the bedrock for its business. Game Pass is an evolution of that plan, and it's starting to come to fruition.

Bethesda says it's performed its "largest engine overhaul since Oblivion" to ensure its Creation Engine is in tip-top shape for next-gen hardware.

Today Microsoft bought Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion, and acquired the rights to Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, and everything else ZeniMax owned. It's a big, big deal for Xbox and the future of RPGs. Nestled in Todd Howard's announcement post is mention of new engine optimizations for Bethesda Game Studios' two big new games: Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6.

Howard says both Starfield, its new singleplayer interstellar RPG space epic, and The Elder Scrolls VI will be powered by a new-and-improved version of the Creation Engine. This new engine update is specifically optimized for next-gen console hardware, including the Xbox Series X and Series S duo, Howard says.

Microsoft just bought Bethesda Softworks parent company ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion, and Xbox now owns the rights to Elder Scrolls, Fallout

Microsoft just spent 3x more than it did for Minecraft in 2014 to buy ZeniMax Media, the parent company of the Bethesda Softworks publishing label and Bethesda Game Studios internal development teams. Xbox now owns the 2,300 team at ZeniMax, including all of Bethesda's first-party worldwide studios. And, most of all, Microsoft now owns Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Doom, along with new franchises like Starfield.

Armed with Microsoft's billions, Bethesda plans to double-down on development of its biggest new games. Xbox's Phil Spencer confirms Bethesda's biggest games are now coming to Game Pass, but there's no word of console exclusivity. This is the single biggest buyout Xbox has ever done and represents decades' worth of value for the cross-platform brand. With Bethesda and Obsidian, Microsoft now has the RPG dream team on its side.

Sampler Feedback Streaming, one of the most important graphics optimization features in the new Xbox console duo, is also coming to PC.

In a recent press event discussing the new Xbox Series S, Microsoft confirmed Sampler Feedback Streaming is a DirectX 12 Ultimate feature and not exclusive to the next-gen console Velocity Architecture framework. That means these optimizations are also coming to PC, which bodes tremendously well for next-gen CPU, GPU, and SSD hardware.

Sampler Feedback Streaming (SFS) is very technical and focuses mostly on texture data, but the gist is that SFS arms developers with much more control over how and when textures are loaded. Instead of loading an entire mipmap texture, SFS allows devs to load just portions of textures that are seen by the player. This reduces overall memory used, speeds up rendering, and frees up bandwidth on the data pipeline--a pipeline that is already astronomically high on PC thanks to enthusiast SSDs like Sabrent's Rocket Plus that hits up to 7GB/sec speeds and higher-end DDR4 RAM.

Sony Santa Monica is making a new God of War sequel set in the Nordic endtimes of Ragnarok, and it's coming to the PS5 in 2021.

Sony had a nice surprise at the end of the official PlayStation 5 price reveal event: A teaser for God of War Ragnarok, a new game that continues the PS4 exclusive's original story arc. A sequel makes a lot of sense for Sony. The reboot fared extremely well with over 10 million sales as of 2019, and helped drive software sales during a critical post-holiday Q1 period.

While no exact details have been confirmed outside of a 2021 release date, we should expect God of War 2 to release on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Sony recently confirmed the PS4 will live alongside its next-gen successor until at least 2024. The company also confirmed some of the biggest PS5 games are actually cross-gen titles that'll release on PS4 too, including Spider-Man Miles Morales and Horizon Forbidden West.

The PS5 pre-order situation is a big fiasco for Sony, but the company says it'll iron things out in the coming weeks.

It's nearly impossible to pre-order a PlayStation 5 right now. Without warning, Sony put up a blog post saying pre-orders would begin a day after they revealed the PS5's price. Retailers apparently didn't get the memo and starting accepting pre-orders that night. This all flies in the face of Sony's promise to give gamers advance notice. "We'll let you know when preorder will happen. It's not going to happen with a minute's notice," Sony exec Eric Lempel said in July.

Suffice it to say, hardly anyone got a PS5 pre-order. Sony even had users sign up for the chance to pre-order a PlayStation 5. Not everyone got that chance (including me). Other retailers like Best Buy, Target, Amazon, and Walmart were flooded with pre-order purchases. My own reservation on Amazon isn't guaranteed, and I placed it minutes after they went live.