Gaming - Page 551

4A Games was just purchased by THQ Nordic, and now confirms their next-gen Metro game will have online multiplayer.

Today 4A Games was folded into THQ Nordic's massive stable of developers. The Metro dev will still technically remain independent, but it'll now serve under World War Z developer Saber Interactive. Both 4A Games and Saber are co-developing the next Metro game, which will have online multiplayer that utilizes the same live framework that powers World War Z.

4A Games CEO Dean Sharpe confirms the next-gen Metro game on PS5 and Xbox Series X will have multiplayer. 4A Games is also working on a new IP, but will still continue working with Dmitry Glukhovsky on new Metro games.

4A Games and its associated IPs, including the Metro franchise, are now wholly-owned by THQ Nordic, joining its ever-growing stable of developers.

The Embracer Group (formerly THQ Nordic) has acquired Metro game series developer 4A Games for $45 million, the company today announced. The purchase equates to $36 million after debts and taxes, of which is made up of $25 million in upfront cash and the remainder made with 1.23 million in B shares.

4A Games will remain independent, but it will serve under Saber Interactive and still be associated with Deep Silver, the wholly-owned publishing arm responsible for games like the Metro and Dead island series.

Microsoft has released another trailer for Flight Simulator, which is about to take off for gamers on August 18 -- just days away. The new 'Planes and Airports Trailer' details some of the planes and airports we will see in Flight Simulator:

The new trailer has Microsoft taking us through some of the absolutely beautiful airports you'll be visiting, and the planes you'll be flying in Flight Simulator. There will be over 37,000 airports in total in Flight Simulator, 2 million cities, live weather -- with storms and all, and so much more.

There will be 3 different versions of Flight Simulator released, these will include:

We have some new details on Cyberpunk 2077 through a recent interview between VG247 and senior gameplay designer on Cyberpunk 2077 at CD PROJEKT RED, Pawel Kapala.

The interview had a bunch of great tidbits, but one part that stood out was the discussion on destructible environments. I'm a huge fan of realistic environmental destruction in games, from Red Faction through to Battlefield games.

But with Cyberpunk 2077, it seems like the team at CD PROJEKT RED are taking destructible environments to the next level. Kapala teased: "We put a lot of emphasis on having destructible environments overall in our game".

GDC 2020 was officially postponed because of COVID-19 earlier this year, meant to kick off in March it was postponed over the coronavirus pandemic.

Well, GDC organizers Informa Tech have announced that the Game Developers Conference 2021 will take place between July 19 and July 23, 2021 in a hybrid physical and digital show. This is a few months later than the mid-March that GDC normally takes place.

The physical side of GDC 2021 will take place like it normally has at the Moscone Center in San Francisco -- while the digital show will be online.

NVIDIA is putting a big spotlight on its GeForce NOW game streaming service ahead of the Ultimate Countdown and its impending "special event" on September 1 for its next-gen GeForce RTX graphics card launch.

The company took to Twitter, offering up a new $25 bundle that gives you the premium subscription level of GeForce NOW for 6 months -- but more importantly, a huge deal with Ubisoft's battle royale shooter Hyper Scape bundle that packs the Season 1 Battle Pass and even exclusive Adi Volta Champion Skin, Volta Drop Pod, Citric Dragonfly Weapon, and Boxer Shuffle Emote.

NVIDIA explains: "Do you hear that? It's the sound of all our dreams coming true. For a limited time, upgrade to a Founders membership and get a Hyper Scape Season One battle pass token + exclusive GeForce NOW Hyper Scape in-game content pack".

The new Marvel Avengers live game will have lots of PC-specific optimizations, including unlocked frame rates, ultrawide 21:9 support, and more.

Today Crystal Dynamics revealed the PC spec requirements for the game, and they're rather modest. Minimum specs call for a lower-end Core i3-4160 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GTX 950 GPU with at least 2GB of VRAM. Recommended specs are likewise as lenient, advising gamers to have at least a Core i7-4770K, a GTX 1060 GPU, and 16GB of system memory.

PC-level optimizations include unlocked FPS and support for 144Hz refresh displays, 21:9 ultrawide monitors, and a huge 30GB ultra-HD texture pack that adds lots more definition to the game.

Good news: You shouldn't have to worry about charging the PS5's new DualSense controller as often as the DualShock 4. Sony's new PlayStation 5 DualSense controller will have a dramatically larger battery than the DualShock 4, hinting at boosted lifespan for play sessions.

The PS5's DualSense controller will have an 1560mAh rechargable battery that could translate to extended battery life, new leaked tests have confirmed. This capacity is a 56% increase over the DualShock 4's current 1000mAh battery, and 20% larger than the Switch Pro controller. This is smaller than the average 2100 mAh capacity of a single rechargeable AA battery. So technically an Xbox One controller with two rechargable AA batteries is 4200mAh.

The DualSense is also complemented with USB-C for charging, which could include quick charge over USB 3.1.

Secretlab has just unveiled their latest line up of gaming chairs, teaming with Riot Games for the world's first official League of Legends Champions gaming chair collection.

It's a big deal as Riot Games is soon celebrating -- if you can even believe it -- the 10th anniversary of League of Legends. Riot Games already uses Secretlab gaming chairs at their premier global tournamnets as well as top-tier pro circuits (including the World Championship and the LCS and LEC).

The new Secretlab Champions range is the first of its kind in the 10-year history of League of Legends, something that saw Riot Games and Secretlab bring to life fan-favorite Ionian champions Akali, Ahri, and Yasuo. Not only that, but a beautiful special edition purple-and-gold K/DA Edition.

Control's "free" next-gen PS5, Xbox Series upgrades are now locked behind a new paywall.

Today 505 Games, the publisher of Remedy's new game Control that has 20 years publishing exclusivity on the franchise, confirmed that existing PS4, Xbox One owners aren't eligible for the promised free next-gen upgrade.

The enhanced next-gen versions are now exclusively available as part of the new Ultimate Edition, a GOTY SKU that packs all expansions with the game. So if you already own Control on current-gen systems and want the enhanced PS5, Xbox Series X version, you have to re-buy the game completely.

Unlike 2K Games, who plans to charge $69.99 for next-gen versions of NBA 2K21, other publishers like Capcom are unsure about raising the price for their PS5, Xbox Series X games.

Capcom joins the likes of Ubisoft in holding back on charging extra for next-gen games. Right now the company has two next-gen games in development: its new IP Pragmata, and Resident Evil VIIIage, which is due out in 2021. Both of those games could be priced at a $59.99 MSRP.

In a recent Q&A session at its Q1'20 earnings report, Capcom confirmed it hasn't set a strict pricing policy for its next-gen games:

We know a new BioShock game is in development, and while we know developers Cloud Chamber Studios is working on it -- we now know some new information on the game.

A new job listing on Cloud Chamber Studios' website that their upcoming game, which is a new BioShock game, will be breathing "life into a new and fantastical world". It will be a narrative and systems-driven experience, giving gamers combat that is "accessible, satisfying, and will allow for a high degree of player expression and experimentation within a highly reactive world".

We now know the new BioShock game will be powered by Unreal Engine 4, which I'm sure the team at Cloud Chamber Studios is going to have fun tweaking to their new game.

Microsoft reportedly planned to reveal Xbox Series X pricing, launch date, and full details of the low-cost Xbox Series S later this month. Now those plans may have shifted.

Today Microsoft made some big moves with its Xbox plans. The company delayed Halo: Infinite in 2021, meaning the Xbox Series X/S won't launch with a huge system-seller. Microsoft also confirmed a November release window for the Series X. This was always obvious given the holiday season. There's still a lot of info missing, though, including price, exact release date, pre-order info, and the formal Xbox Series S reveal.

Now it appears the big August showcase could be moved to September. According to Shinobi602, a well-known figure with close ties to developers, new Xbox Series updates will come a bit later than planned. "Expect news about other Xbox stuff that's been going around recently to come a bit later too," Shinobi said on ResetERA.

EA shareholders have voted against a robust stock compensation package for executives worth tens of millions of dollars.

For the first time in years, EA investors seem to agree that company execs are overpaid. A new SEC form 8K filing confirms EA investors shot down an exorbitant bonus package for the company's top brass in a say-on-pay vote. The existing plan would've awarded EA execs like CEO Andrew Wilson and CFO Blake Jorgensen over $16 million in bonus stock.

The overwhelming majority of active voters were against the plan. 74% of active voters, or 170 million out of the 230.5 million that voted, said no to the compensation payouts. But say-on-pay votes don't actually block the remuneration plans, and the board of directors could still deliver the payouts to EA executives.

That new Alien online shooting game hasn't been cancelled after all, and Cold Iron Studios finds a new home.

Cold Iron's new Alien MMO shooter for consoles and PC is still in development and hasn't been cancelled, the studio today announced. The project is still alive and well, Cold Iron is still at the helm, and the team has found a permanent stable home. The studio now resides at Daybreak Games (formerly Sony Online Entertainment), the publishing banner that unifies games like Planetside, H1Z1, and Everquest.

Daybreak is a great fit for Cold Iron, who has extensive MMO experience, and the online-based Alien game which will be well-guided by the publisher.

The Xbox Series X will launch this November, Microsoft today confirmed. But we don't have an actual release date yet.

Halo: Infinite was just delayed to 2021. The biggest next-gen system-seller will no longer launch with said system in 2020. This prompted Microsoft to remind everyone about the Xbox Series X's massive backwards compatibility that plays thousands of games across four generations of Xbox. It also pushed them to reveal the Xbox Series X's launch window.

The next-gen Xbox will release sometime in November, Microsoft announced, but this was always obvious. Every new Xbox generation has always launched in November, a time period selected to take advantage of the seasonal holiday sales rush. The Xbox launched on November 15, 2001, the Xbox 360 released on November 22, 2005, and the Xbox One launched on November 22, 2013. If history is an indicator, the Xbox Series family of consoles may release in later November as well.

The Xbox Series S could have a similar high-tower design as the Series X model despite being a lot less powerful.

The new leaked Xbox controller has been unboxed in a YouTube video, showing off the fancy Robot White paint job, new share button, and hybrid D-Pad. The setup guide is particularly interesting. The guide only shows a Series X tower, which is interesting because the controller is mainly billed as a next-gen peripheral for both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. There's no Series S pictured.

What if the cheaper, digital-only Series S has the same form factor? What if it looks like a white Series X?

Sony just sold more games in Q1 than any other company in the 48-year history of console gaming.

Sony's PlayStation division set new records in Q1'20. Not only did PlayStation make $1 billion in profit in Q1, more revenue than any other platform in the history of gaming, but Sony also sold 91 million games during the period, smashing every competitor and pushing total PlayStation 4 game sales to nearly 1.4 billion. In comparison, Nintendo sold 50.4 million games in Q1.

Out of the 91 million PS4 games sold in Q1, 18.5 million of them, or 20%, were first-party PlayStation exclusives. Hardware, conversely, was down 40% year-over-year to 1.9 million sales. Sony has shipped a total 112.3 million PS4 consoles to date.

UPDATE:New retail package labels reinforce a November 5-6 release date for the Xbox Series X:

The new Xbox controllers have leaked out into the wild and the packaging confirms the Xbox Series S is indeed real. Now the controller's warranty information may hint at a November 5 launch for both Xbox Series systems.

According to info provided by ResetERA, the new Xbox controller has a warranty that expires on November 5, 2021.

Fall Guys is the latest gaming craze. It's taking over Twitch and it even had players than Grand Theft Auto V on Steam. Now Devolver confirms an absolutely massive sales milestone.

Fall Guys has now sold more than 2 million copies on Steam, making it the best launch game in Devolver Digital's history of releases. These are absolutely astronomical sales figures for any game, whether it's AAA or indie. For reference, Final Fantasy 7 Remake sold 3.5 million copies in 3 days. It took Fall Guys less than a week to hit 2 million copies.

Here's how Fall Guys is stacking up against other indies: