Gaming - Page 550

Halo: Infinite was just delayed to 2021, but some companies like Monster Energy didn't get enough time to postpone their promotional plans. So they're running an Xbox Series X / Halo: Infinite giveaway even though the game isn't coming out in 2020. As with any giveaway, Monster put up prize pool worth, and gamers have done some quick math to potentially extrapolate the Series X's price. This isn't accurate.

In the promo, Monster Energy is giving out 200 first-prize bundles that include an Xbox Series X and a copy of Halo: Infinite. The first place prize pool is worth a total of $199,998, Monster says. A bit of quick math dividing the total prize pool value from the amount of prizes gives us $599.99, which people have suspected is the console's final price.

This is erroneous for two reasons: It doesn't include the $59.99 cost of Halo: Infinite, and Monster Energy flat-out says this is an estimation of the total prize pool's value. With Halo: Infinite's $59.99 MSRP subtracted, the console's value is roughly $539.99, which leans much closer to a $499 base price for the Xbox Series X. Even this isn't entirely accurate and Monster is guesstimating to cover its bases.

Gamers have two choices when buying Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and both of them will net a next-gen version. Buy the current-gen version for $49.99 on Amazon and get the free PS5/Xbox Series X upgrade, or buy the next-gen version for $59.99. Why wouldn't you just buy the current-gen version and technically get two games for $49.99? Why is Ubisoft even discounting the current-gen version and giving us a choice?

Ubisoft has confirmed Xbox One and PS4 copies of Assassin's Creed Valhalla will come with free upgrades to the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 versions that release alongside each next-gen console. Since both the PS5 and Xbox Series X are backwards compatible, you can buy the PS4 and Xbox One versions and play them on next-gen systems. This isn't the beefy next-gen optimized flavor, though, just the backwards compatible version. You can still take advantage of the full next-gen upgrade as well. So why even buy the next-gen only version for $59.99?

It's worth noting the digital version of AC Valhalla on Xbox One is $59.99, presumably because of Smart Delivery, which will automatically scale it to the next-gen version.

Resident Evil 7 is now the best-selling game in the series, and is now the second top-seller for Capcom's entire lineup.

Capcom's top 10 sales chart is dominated by Monster Hunter with 16.1 million copies, but Resident Evil 7 has secured the #2 spot. The 2017 first-person horror game has now sold 7.9 million units worldwide on all platforms, beating Resident Evil 5, which had previously sat on top of the RE series for years. More recently, Resident Evil 3 REmake has sold over 3 million copies since its early 2020 release.

The zombie franchise is Capcom's biggest earner and has currently sold more than 103 million copies across 141 releases, SKUs, and games. Resident Evil VIIIage may even beat RE7's sales in a shorter span. Capcom expects to sell a record 28 million games this fiscal year, and RE VIIIage will be a big mover for those numbers.

EA is combining the base versions of Origin Access and EA Access together in one package, and it's called EA Play.

As more and more publishers roll out their own subscription services, the need to converge and simplify is important. EA today announced its plans to do just that with EA Play, a new umbrella for its existing services. EA Play will include the base $4.99 versions of Origin Access (PC) and EA Access (PS4, Xbox One) in a single subscription package. That means one subscription carries over to PS4, Xbox One, or PC.

The big motivation behind EA Play is access to a vault of 40+ games. It's basically EA's version of Game Pass, and the library of available games varies on a platform-to-platform basis. It's a way to experience older EA games without having to buy them outright.

It really went into a dark timeline for Apple, Google, Epic Games, and gamers across the world with a huge battle that culminated in Epic Games suing Apple to "end Apple's dominance over tech markets".

Fortnite was pulled from the App Store in retaliation, and then Google ripped the battle royale juggernaut from its own Play Store. It all went down in a few hours time, blowing most people away -- and in the middle of it, some people are selling their older-gen iPad with Fortnite pre-installed for huge amounts of money second hand on eBay.

There's someone selling an iPad 7 with Fortnite pre-installed for $900 on eBay right now, which is pretty crazy considering that you can find the iPad 7 for well under $300 when it has been put on sale. You can even buy a brand new 11-inch iPad Pro for less than this.

A new Sony patent hints the PS5 could use liquid metal compound instead of thermal grease to significantly reduce temperatures under load.

Before we dive into the patent, I want to remind everyone this isn't confirmed information. This is a patent and may not be included in the final console. The following is our interpretation of the patent and it is not our intention to mislead anyone.

Sony has gone through great lengths to keep the PlayStation 5 cool and quiet.

Today Ubisoft confirmed Ashraf Ismail, who served as creative director on Assassin's Creed Origins and Valhalla, has been fired from the company.

Ubisoft is cleaning house in an attempt to weed out abusers at its company, and has let go of some of the highest-level executives responsible for big decisions. Now it has fired another employee embroiled in abuse allegations: Ashraf Ismail. Back in June we reported Ismail had left Ubisoft after being caught cheating on his wife, but that wasn't entirely true. Ismail didn't leave Ubisoft but instead left his position. Now Ubisoft has officially fired him.

This is the latest step in Ubisoft's push back against its endemic abuse culture. The company was careful to say Ismail wasn't fired for infidelity, rather using his position as creative director to meet with a fan privately. Ismail was the creative director on two of the three recent Assassin's Creed games. Recent firings include longtime PR director Stone Chin, who was also accused of abuse, but was fired for workplace-related issues.

After years of development, Warner Bros. Montreal will finally reveal its new Batman game on Saturday, August 22 at 1:30PM.

WB Montreal's new Batman game, which is apparently called Batman: Gotham Knights, will be revealed at the DC Fandome event next week, the event's website confirms. The game will be announced in a 20-minute session and give gamers a "first look" at the title, complete with a Q&A panel from developers.

Gotham Knights is believed to follow the Batman comic series with the same name. Just like the comic series, the game is expected to have at least four playable characters, which folds into older Arkham Legacy rumors of a playable "Bat family". Main protagonists may include--but are not limited to--Batman, Batgirl, Robin and Nightwing.

Multiple reports say Sony's PlayStation 5 will cost more than the Xbox Series X. No one knows for sure how much the PS5 will cost, but Sony's yearly forecast gives us clues on an attractive mass-market price point.

The PlayStation 5 will be more expensive than the PS4. That's a given. The console features high-end specs that usher in the enthusiast age of console gaming, complete with a Navi GPU capable of native 4K (and even 8K) gaming, an 8-core, 16-thread Zen 2 CPU at 3.5GHz, both of which are on an SoC with variable clock rates and set voltages, 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, and the fastest storage ever to be put in a console with a 6-channel PCie 4.0 SSD that can hit 5.5GB/sec speeds. But how much will it be? Could the PS5 break $600? That's not very likely.

We don't know exactly how much the PlayStation 5 will cost, nor do we claim to. All we can do is tally up the evidence with current reports and look at what Sony's said so far--and more importantly, what its yearly earnings forecasts lay out for investors.

Apex Legends is about to receive its new Season 6 update, with developer Respawn Entertainment taking to the official Apex Legends Twitter account to tease the news.

Respawn gives us a YouTube link to where the Apex Legends Season 6 - Boosted Gameplay Trailer will premiere. The gameplay video will go live on August 4 at 8AM PT, where I'm sure we'll also get some more details on Season 6 itself, and its upcoming Battle Pass.

Apex Legends upcoming Season 6 will introduce a new legend with Rampant, who seems to love huge guns and bubble gum. There will be over 100 exclusive items included in the Boosted Battle Pass, crafting -- where you'll need to collect materials and build yourself some better weapons and gear -- and a new Ranked Season for people to get addicted to.

We all remember James Cameron's massively successful 1997 movie Titanic, catapulting its stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet into Hollywood super-stardom.

Well, Titanic is being turned into a board game with Titanic: The Game. Spin Master Games has used the 1997 movie Titanic for its inspiration for the game, pulling the characters that Cameron used in the movie with players able to play as Jack, Rose, Cal, Ruth or the Captain.

But get this, they thought it was a good idea to market Titanic: The Game, a tragedy where over 1500 people died on April 15, 1912. But yeah, they're serious -- check out how they describe the game:

We've had a couple of fresh nuggets of info about Battlefield 6, where industry insider Tom Henderson tweeting that the team at DICE have been designing Battlefield 6 maps for 128 players -- with 32 v 32 still a key focus.

But it was the second tweet about Battlefield 6 that had my attention, where Henderson tweets: "Battlefield news; There's also been increased interest in Battle Royale due to the success of Warzone. No confirmation of a BR in the next Battlefield yet, but could EA and DICE be planning a F2P Battlefield experience?"

So the EA DICE team have been eyeing off that huge success of Call of Duty: Warzone and its incredibly addictive battle royale mode. He has "no confirmation" of battle royale in Battlefield 6 just yet, but does note that the team could be planning a free-to-play Battlefield experience.

I'm sure EA DICE have been taking down some serious notes over the mega-success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and more specifically its battle royale mode that is addictive AF: Warzone.

In some new Battlefield 6 leaks, we have industry insider Tom Henderson tweeting out some "Battlefield news". Henderson tweeted: "Maps have been designed with 128+ players in mind. But 32 vs 32 will also be a standard playlist".

We recently saw an entire building collapse in Battlefield 6 -- or at least we thought we did, and we also heard about Battlefield 6 having a modern setting and supporting up to 128 players, and EA boss Laura Miele recently saying the team are "creating epic battles at a scale and fidelity unlike anything you've experienced before" in Battlefield 6.

We should expect some real 4K fakery when both next-gen consoles are here, but the slower of the two -- the PlayStation 5 -- seems like it is going to struggle in 4K and that gamers might be "disappointed" by some major third-party games with "fake 4K" games.

Well people, get ready to be "disappointed" with some of the third-party games on the PlayStation 5 with some fake 4K gaming coming our way according to industry insider Jeff Grubb and his latest comments on the Basement Radio Arcade Podcast.

It seems that AMD SmartShift technology inside of the PlayStation 5, is going to cause some issues. Grubb said that game developers are having a hard time wrapping their heads around Sony's decision to use a variable frequency approach in the PS5 (through AMD SmartShift) and that many third-party PS5 games will leave gamers disappointed.

Epic Games is suing Apple for unfair practices, a move that could force an anti-trust investigation into the App Store. But now its motivations become more clear.

Today Epic Games decided to take Apple, who controls half of the world's mobile market. Epic started the coup by opening its own payment option within Fortnite in iOS, allowing gamers to buy V-Bucks at a 20% discount. This completely eliminated the 30% revenue cut that Apple usually takes. Predictably, Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store. Then Epic fired back with a lawsuit alleging monopolistic behavior.

The case actually makes some good points, and it's possible the courts will set new rules and precedents for Apple. The move was a well-orchestrated and planned maneuver on Epic's part in the guise of freeing developers from the "iOS stranglehold." But the documents reveal there's more to Epic's motivations than goodwill of consumers and developers.

If Halo: Infinite had released in 2020, it may have launched as an incomplete product missing a few things, including multiplayer.

In a recent interview with Gary Whitta, Xbox boss Phil Spencer shed a lot of light about Halo: Infinite's recent delay to 2021. According to Spencer, delaying the game was the right call. The project simply wasn't where it needed to be for a big blockbuster AAA hit. There's lots of reasons for this, including the complexities of developing a new engine alongside a new game, and work-from-home measures thanks to COVID-19.

The reality is that if Halo: Infinite did release in 2020, it probably would've only had campaign or multiplayer--not both. This aligns with recent reports we heard back in late July that claimed Halo: Infinite would ship without multiplayer. 343i quickly jumped in to say the rumors weren't true, but it looks like the info could've been closer to the truth than the studio was willing to admit.

Epic Games, one of the most powerful titans in the games industry, is tired of paying the 30% 'Apple tax' on all iOS revenues. Now Epic is standing up to Apple, and is suing them in a case that could set precedent for the entire games industry.

Today Epic Games decided to flat-out challenge Apple. First Epic added in an option for direct payments into Fortnite, which completely bypassed Apple's 30% revenue cut altogether. Apple takes 30% of all games revenues from the iOS storefront. Apple, of course, pulled the game from the App Store for terms and conditions violations.

Now Epic is suing Apple and seeks to end its "dominance over key technology markets."

Sony has already shown off the PS5's high-end gaming capabilities with the stunning Gran Turismo 7 trailer, and revealed how the console's ultra-fast 5.5GB/sec PCIe 4.0 will destroy load times in the new Ratchet and Clank game. Now a single screenshot exhibits what the console will be capable of at launch.

A new Spider-Man Miles Morales screenshot from Entertainment Weekly speaks volumes about the PlayStation 5's ability at launch. First-party devs like Insomniac Games apparently are pushing ray tracing right out of the gate, complete with new ambient weather and lighting effects. The puddle alone shows evidence of ray-traced reflections and mirrors the kind of thing we see in Control on PC.

We also know Spider-Man Miles Morales will be incredibly optimized on PlayStation 5. Insomniac has baked in a performance mode that hits 4K 60FPS, which is unheard of for this kind of game mode. Usually performance modes target 1080p 60FPS and don't deliver dazzling 4K 60FPS gameplay. This possibly hints the game will hit upscaled 8K resolution to complement Sony's new high-end 8K TVs.

UPDATE 2: Fortnite has also been banned from the Google Play Store on Android.

UPDATE:Fortnite has been delisted from the App Store following this move. Gamers who already have it downloaded can still play, and can still buy in-game V Bucks.

Epic Games is brazenly defying Apple and Google by offering direct payments for Fortnite V-Bucks on iOS and Android.

Today Chinese juggernaut Tencent announced its Q2'20 earnings, and the results see strong spikes in game earnings in the period.

COVID-19 is spiking games industry revenues, and Tencent is no expception. The company revealed its Q2'20 performance for the quarter ending June 30, revealing strong 29% spikes in total revenues to $16.2 billion. Operating profit was up 38% to $5.3 billion, driven by surges in games revenues, and net profit reached $5.2 billion, up a strong 31% over Q2'19.

Games made up 35% of total revenues, or $5.68 billion. Smartphone games predictably made the lion's share of these earnings with $5.08 billion, driven mostly by heavily-monetized free-to-play games.