Gaming - Page 535

We knew that something was brewing over at Rocksteady in the form of a new Superman game -- and even though we thought there was NOT a new Superman game in development at Rocksteady, it is official: there's a new Suicide Squad game on the way but that's not all. Oh man, check out the tweet:

So I've been following virtually every major Twitter account that I can for DC FanDome, which is a new event coming where we should get our first real trailer to Zack Snyder's Justice League. Because of that, I was sitting at my PC at nearly midnight my time and saw this news from Rocksteady Studios on Twitter.

It is a movie-style poster with Superman in all his glory, looking quite pissed off and maybe his heat vision is going a bit nuts here in the photo after a fight. It's a very hero-style shot and I love it... the spit curl, I'm digging -- as it's a small departure from the Superman in the DCEU with Henry Cavill in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition is launching on the PC right now, with developer Guerrilla Games aware of some teething issues on the PC at launch.

The developer has said that some of the animations in Horizon Zero Dawn will be locked at 30FPS, and there will be some stuttering issues on particular PC setups. Guerrilla explains: "Some animations are designed to only refresh at 30fps even if the game is running at a much higher frame rate".

Guerrilla Games wants you to be more prepared for Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition on your PC, reminding you to download the new NVIDIA GeForce 451.67 or AMD Radeon 20.7.2 drivers -- or newer (grab these Radeon 20.8.1 drivers optimized for Horizon Zero Dawn). Hopefully the day one update for the game fixes these issues up.

Capcom updates its best-selling games list on the heels of stellar Q1 performance, cementing Monster Hunter World as its best-selling game of all time.

Monster Hunter: World has now sold over 16 million copies, and is the first Capcom game to achieve this feat in the company's long 41-year history. This drives total Monster Hunter franchise sales to 64 million, up 1 million from Q4'19. Monster Hunter Iceborne is tracked separately and has sold 5.8 million copies on its own.

Capcom just kicked off its new Fiscal Year 2020 with the best Q1 earnings it's ever had, pulling in a record $72.44 million in net profits (+44% YoY) on the back of $219.81 million in net sales revenue (+32% YoY). Games like Monster Hunter: World were strong contributors to these earnings and helped drive game segment earnings up by 54% to $189 million.

Bethesda today announced a commitment to provide free next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X upgrades for its biggest games, starting first with Doom Eternal and Elder Scrolls Online.

As we predicted, id Software will reveal next-gen optimizations for Doom Eternal at Quakecon 2020. The new id Tech 7 engine that powers Doom Eternal is future-proofed for multiple generations of enthusiast-grade GPU tech, and was built from the ground up for forward-compatibility with new console hardware too.

While no optimization details have been confirmed, we could see Doom Eternal as the first next-gen game locked at 120FPS on PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Spelunky 2 finally got a firm September 15 release date, but only for PlayStation 4. There's no locked launch date for other platforms.

Today Mossmouth confirmed a release date for Spelunky 2 on PS4, but other platforms will have to wait a big longer. Game developer Derek Yu says the maze-runner platformer needs more time in the oven before it's ready to serve on PC. The online multiplayer is adding multiple layers of complexity to the game.

"The Steam version of Spelunky 2 will come out shortly after PS4! We'll need a little extra time to iron out online multiplayer on PC. Release date for that soon! After Steam, we'll look into other platforms. We are excited for as many people to play as possible," Yu said on Twitter.

Godfall, the new PlayStation 5 looter-slasher coming in 2020, won't have microtransactions or monetization.

Godfall looks like prime territory for microtransactions. It's an action-based third-person combat game with heavy emphasis on gear progression and customization, and it also feature online 3-player co-op. There's lots of weapons to collect across five classes, and a number of valor plate armor sets to unlock. These things are typically hallmarks to any service-driven live game, and on the surface, Godfall looks like a great fit for cosmetic mTX. But Counterplay promises the game won't have any form of in-game purchases. Godfall is a complete package, the developer says.

"Godfall is a complete package. All of the gear and items in the game are acquired and unlocked through gameplay. There are no microtransactions. No waiting for content. It's all in the game, day one," Godfall game director Keith Lee said in a recent gameplay video.

UPDATE:As we predicted, Remedy teases this is the beginning of a new expanded connected universe.

"What if there's actually been a plan in place for over a decade on how some of our games are connected - a Remedy Connected Universe, if you will - and payoff for certain things is... down the line?," Remedy's Thomas Puha said in a PlayStation Blog post.

Control's new AWE expansion will feature Remedy favorite Alan Wake, as well as a new cursed arcade machine.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons just sold more copies in a single quarter than most AAA games sell in their lifetime.

Nintendo's Q1 earnings are astronomical; the company's profits are up 541% to $989 million on the back of $3.3 billion in net sales. Switch made up $3.2 billion of net sales, or 92% of total earnings. Nintendo sold 5.67 million Switch consoles in Q1, more than twice any other Q1 in history, and beat all Q2 regions too.

Software is up a tremendously 123% to 50.4 million units, pushing total cumulative Switch software to 406.67 million, which beats the 3DS' lifetime software.

The Nintendo Switch has now sold 406.67 million games digitally and physically, beating the 3DS' current 384 million software sales.

Nintendo is on a roll right now. The company reported massive 541% profit gains in Q1, driven by Switch hardware and software sales surges. Switch hardware shot up by 5.67 million units, up 166% year-over-year, pushing hardware to 61.44 million since launch. Software likewise saw a sharp uptick.

The Switch's current software sales sit at 406.67 million, driven by a huge 50.43 million games sold in Q1'21 (+123% rise in sales year-over-year). These numbers current beat the 3DS' lifetime software sales, which now sit at 384.7 million. The Switch is now #5 in Nintendo's top historical platform software sales.

Nintendo wants to produce 25 million Switch consoles by the end of this fiscal year, sources tell Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki.

COVID-19 lockdowns have led to significant console hardware shortage. The Nintendo Switch in particular is scarce in all global markets, and analyst firms like GSD note a 106% Switch sales spike in European markets.. Nintendo wants to alleviate scarcity by adding millions onto its current manufacturing orders.

Sources say Nintendo has adjusted its internal production forecast by 3 million units, and now plans to create and make available 25 million Switch consoles in the fiscal year ending March 2021. Sources say Nintendo previously only planned to make 22 million units this year.

Epic Games just successfully closed a $1.78 billion funding round pushing its total equity valuation to over $17.3 billion.

Fortnite creator and Unreal Engine platform-holder Epic Games tacked on nearly $2 billion to its total equity, the company today announced. New investors include a number of accounts from a myriad of firms, including BlackRock Financial, Fidelity Management, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and even the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board invested into Epic.

The news comes weeks after Bloomberg reported on the funding round back in June 2020. The company has managed to add over $2 billion in valuation in less than two years. In 2018, Epic's valuation sat at $15 billion, and the same year it managed to rake in over $3 billion in operating profits.

Nintendo sold more Switch consoles in Q1'21 than in any other first quarter period in the console's history.

Today Nintendo announced record-breaking Fiscal Year Q1'21 earnings on the back of strong hardware adoption. Nintendo managed to sell 5.67 million Switch consoles in the quarter ended June 30, up triple digits (+166%) from last year.

Nintendo's recent quarterly Switch sales are more than twice that of any other Q1 since the system's launch. These numbers also beat any Q2 period since the system's release in March 2017. Nintendo doesn't traditionally break 5 million hardware sales until the critical Q3 holiday period.

Nintendo Switch sales surged by triple digits in Europe during COVID-19 lockdowns, and helped raise overall hardware adoption by 84% in the region.

COVID-19 is surging sales revenues for the games industry. Sony and Microsoft just reported record quarters for games earnings, and Nintnedo is poised to do the same. But not all regions are the same, and analyst firm GSD shows some interesting metrics.

According to GSD, all three major consoles saw a sharp uptick in sales during COVID-19. The Switch in particular grew triple digits by 106%, reflecting the console's scarcity across the globe right now.

Call of Duty: Warzone is now enjoying its Season 5 update, with Activision taking the time to announce that Warzone has now passed 75 million players.

Season 5 of the game just launched, changing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the free-to-play battle royale mode Warzone. Warzone had racked up 60 million players in May 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic has surely been fueling Warzone's continuous growth.

The game itself is wicked fun and I'm personally addicted, so I can see why 75 million other players are loving Warzone and how Season 5 has completely changed the game. After a huge Warzone session last night, it's interesting how the meta changes so quickly and the newly-tweaked Stadium is now a huge hot spot of action and I love it.

Sony will be hosting its State of Play event on August 6, where we could be introduced to more details on the PlayStation 5 -- even though Sony has promised "no big PS5 announcements".

But now French retailer Carrefour has teased pricing on the next-gen PlayStation 5, which will reportedly cost $599 at launch. The all-digital PlayStation 5 will cost $499 at launch, but won't come with a 4K UHD Blu-ray player.

The pricing is higher than the previous pricing of $499 for the standard PS5 and $399 for the all-digital PS5 from a few weeks ago, but I think we'll still see a firm November 20, 2020 launch.

We are expecting Sony to have some pretty solid backwards compatibility when it launches its PlayStation 5, which should support the 'overwhelming majority of PS4 games' on the PS5 at launch.

Some exciting news from streamer Lance McDonald who says that an insider of his at Sony says that PlayStation 5 backwards compatibility is solid. He tweeted that the PS5 would play any PS4 game without approval required from Sony by the developer, but quickly deleted the tweet "out of respect for the platform holder".

McDonald said: "There's been some confusion about this in the past and I can clear it up now. The PlayStation 5 can run all PlayStation 4 games without per-game whitelisting. Sony continue[s] to test titles but the system will not prevent you from launching untested games".

Cold Symmetry's brutal action-RPG Mortal Shell releases on August 18, 2020 on PS4, Xbox One and PC, the developer today announced.

The latest Mortal Shell trailer gives an eerie look at the game's decidedly haunted atmosphere, touching upon the Souls-like combat and emphasis on dark medieval fantasy visuals. The footage also showcased Solomon, the new fourth Shell that can be possessed (classes are "shells" in the game), and a bunch of visceral combat against hulking bosses.

The best part of the trailer was the new Ballistazooka, an old-school death-dealing shoulder cannon that dishes out extreme destruction.

UPDATE: New reports from The Verge suggest Apple is to blame for Project xCloud not releasing on iOS. Microsoft is apparently halting xCloud testing due to iOS policy restrictions.

Microsoft has set a firm September beta rollout date for its innovative Project xCloud streaming service.

Starting September 11, every Game Pass Ultimate subscriber will be able to stream games to their mobile phones at no extra cost. Right now this only includes streaming Game Pass games, not games you already own, and is exclusive to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. Microsoft has made plans to turn every Xbox One console into a remote game streaming platform, but that availability isn't included with this beta test.

Activision and Treyarch confirm the next Call of Duty is on the way, and it could be shown during Sony's new State of Play event tomorrow.

The wait is almost over: Treyarch says it'll show off the new Call of Duty game sometime soon. What better place to show it than Sony's new State of Play event tomorrow, where over 100 million PS4 owners will be tuning in?

Treyarch, Raven Software, and Sledgehammer Games have been working on 2020's premium Call of Duty game for some time. As past reports--and newly leaked promos--say, the new Call of Duty game will take place during the Cold War. The campaign may also span from the Vietnam era up until the Cold War's end in the 1980s.

Sony shares skyrocketed to $81.25 days after the company announced record Q1 PlayStation earnings, and now analysts think PlayStation 5 could surge stocks by another 20%.

Sony just reported a massive $2.17 billion in profits in Q1'20, nearly half of which was generated by the PlayStation brand. Sony's Q1 numbers are the highest in the history of the video games industry, and PlayStation earnings amounted more than 30% of Sony's total revenues. Sony shares have skyrocketed by nearly 50% year-over-year to $81.25 as a result, the highest point since June 2001. This could just be the beginning of the upward trajectory.

This milestone wasn't lost on investors, nor was it lost on analysts, who now predict big things for Sony's FY2020 period. The company expects the PlayStation brand to deliver a record $2.24 billion in profits on $23.4 billion in revenues, driven primarily by the PlayStation 5 and digital software.