Gaming - Page 564

Epic Games blew the world away with the announcement of Unreal Engine 5, and while you will need a next-gen console like the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X -- you will be able to run it on the PC too.

On the PC you'll need a high-end GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER at a minimum, as well as a super-fast NVMe SSD -- but what about Commodore 64 owners? Yeah, sorry everyone -- you'll need to do some upgrades I think. Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney joked around recently, where during his talks about Unreal Engine 5 he said that the Commodore 64 won't be supported.

In a flurry of tweets, Sweeney addressed the mind blowing Unreal Engine 5 demo on the PlayStation 5 as "the culmination of years of discussions between Sony and Epic on future graphics and storage architectures". Sweeney tweeted:

Epic Games recently announced some big changes and developments that'll arm game creators with even more power and flexibility for their titles.

Shortly after announcing Unreal Engine 5, Epic Games also revealed two other major breakthroughs for game devs: Waived royalty fees until a game sells a certain amount, and new online services. UE5 in itself offers huge advantages for productivity and efficiency, namely for artists. The engine uses new Nanite polygon technology that allows artists to render native cinematic-quality megatextures into scenes via virtual sub-pixel goemetry, complete with no LoD or pop-ins. Devs can easily import assets and replicate them on-the-fly to increase productivity.

On the business level, Epic is also helping developers earn money without being instantly weighted down by fees. Unreal Engine royalty fees are now waived until the game makes its first $1 million, and that also includes UE5 when it launches in 2021. And even then the licensing is 5% afterwards.

UPDATE: Bethesda confirms Fallout 76's seasonal battle pass-style system will remain free for everyone.

You can often tell how well a live game is doing based on its updates--frequency, radical changes etc. If a GaaS title is constantly shifting things around and trying new things, odds are it's not monetizing well and the devs are trying new tricks to see what works. That's apparently happening with Fallout 76 and Bethesda's aggressive push towards new models.

Fallout 76 has pretty much tried every popular monetization scheme under the sun. Now it's trying something new, well not new for the industry, but new for the game. In an attempt to re-engage its playerbase and spin the Engagement Cycle wheel, Fallout 76 now has a tiered progression system right out of a battle pass. This system is free at the start, but Bethesda inadvertently hints we may have to pay for battle passes eventually:

Fortnite is a titan of the industry that continually rakes in billions, and now it's made over $1 billion from microtransactions on mobile.

Fortnite isn't just a game. It's a sensation, a kind of social experiment with interactive gameplay, and most importantly, the perfect advertising billboard for movies, products, and even musical artists. Fortnite transcends what a game could be, and as a result of this barrier-breaking success, the game has raked in billions of revenues (Epic made $3 billion in operating profit in 2018 alone). Now Fortnite mobile has joined the billion-dollar club.

Analyst firm Sensor Tower reports that Fortnite has generated over $1.003 billion in revenue across all platforms since releasing in 2018. The firm attributes COVID-19 lockdowns for accelerating spending, alongside the Travis Scott concert in April.

In early 2020, BioWare finally confirmed Anthem is getting rebooted. But now, roughly three months after the announcement, BioWare has only just started prototyping the big update.

Anthem is getting a big overhaul in an attempt to save the ailing live game. EA simply spent too much money on the project, and BioWare enjoyed big sales from the franchise. But the live service aspects utterly failed--BioWare broke Progression, step 3 on the Engagement Cycle--and the game is stagnant. The devs are planning something big, maybe a huge A Realm Reborn-style turnaround for the game, but it'll be a long time before it's ready. A long, long time.

Right now BioWare only has 30 people working on Anthem's new reconstruction. In a recent blog post, BioWare's Christian Dailey confirmed the status of Anthem's reboot.

Konami's total yearly profits dive on weak foreign exchange rates, coronavirus disruption across amusement and pachislot segments, and increased spending on new games in development.

Konami just announced its FY19 earnings, and like Sony, the games-maker is seeing a big drop in overall profits.

Konami's net revenues for the year ending March 31, 2020 sit at $2.4 billion, flat year-over-year on the strength of consistent games performance, but operating income is down nearly 40% to $284.9 million due to boosted expenses like moving to a new Konami-owned office in the Ginza district of Tokyo. Profits are likewise down a big 41% YoY to $182.9 million due to shaky global economics from COVID-19.

Today CD Projekt RED dropped a new glimpse at the scorching no man's land deserts that surround Night City, showing a very different side of the game's cyber-tech futurism.

Cyberpunk 2077 is absolutely huge and has lots of different areas to explore across Night City, complete with six districts that're run by different cultures and gangs. But outside the city there's a hostile near post-apocalyptic landscape straight out of Mad Max.

It's ruled by various factions including the Wraiths, ruthless bandits and raiders of the wastes, and the Nomads, who roam the sandy dunes.

Titanfall 3 still isn't in development, Respawn head Vince Zampella confirms. But something special is cooking up on the stoves at the newly rebranded DICE LA studio.

Apex Legends will be the only Titanfall-related game for a while. Titanfall 3 isn't happening at Respawn, despite EA's 2019 teases of a new premium Titanfall game. It might come out some day, but it's not being worked on right now.

"There's nothing currently in development," Vince Zampella told IGN. "But it's always there. You see the little bits of stuff coming back [through the lore in Apex Legends]. At some point, I would personally like to see some kind of resurrection there. We'll see if I can make that happen."

Payday owner Starbreeze is still in dire straits. If the company doesn't get extra cash or secure a publishing deal by Q4 2020, it may have to start liquidating assets. The Payday franchise could be the first to go.

After disastrous losses and debt issues, Starbreeze is still hanging on. The company is still losing a lot of money, but the good news is now it's losing less money. As of Q1'2020, Starbreeze's losses were down a big 41% to $9.82 million (97 million SEK), compared to the $18 million (167 million SEK) it lost in 2019.

In the earnings report, Starbreeze CEO Mikael Nermark expressed cautious optimism for the company's roadmap, saying that Payday 2 demand has increased in the quarter. Payday is literally Starbreeze's only cash crop, and Payday 2 made up 98% of total revenues for the quarter.

Battlemode cheating is a big problem in Doom Eternal--gamers are using the Cheat Engine to do all sorts of crazy things. id and Bethesda responded by slapping Denuvo Anti-Cheat into the game, triggered lots of concern from fans.

Doom Eternal just got a new update on PC that adds some nifty features like empowered demons and new unlockables, but also includes Denuvo's somewhat controversial anti-cheat tech. Denuvo Anti-Cheat isn't the same as Denuvo Anti-Tamper, though. The anti-cheat is a kernel-based driver at the base ring 0 level, meaning it has full and unfettered access to your operating system. That means technically the game can collect data on everything your OS is doing, as well as interfere with critical functions and cause errors like blue screens and even lowered game performance. Some see this as a security risk and are aggravated at the move.

id has been transparent about DAC's inclusion in Doom Eternal with the recent patch notes, and promises the game won't be collecting any sensitive info and shipping it out. id also lays out easy un-installation instructions if you want to play offline. But DAC is required to play Battlemode and I can't actually start Doom Eternal on Steam without updating the game to the newest patched version.

Sony's Fiscal Year 2019 results show a marked decrease in PlayStation hardware adoption and a drop in software sales, but digital ratio is on the rise due to COVID-19.

Sony's latest financials reveal key earnings drops in a number of areas, resulting in a 36% decrease in overall profits and other performance metrics. The results saw drops in yearly revenues, operating income, and overall profits,

Profits are down 36% YoY due to key segment slides like gaming, music, and EP&S, all of which saw net revenue drops. Sony pulled in $5.355 billion in profits attributable to stakeholders in FY19, as compared to $8.262 billion last year.

Today Sucker Punch showcased the first Ghost of Tsushima footage, exploring a deeply cinematic samurai epic that would've made Akira Kurosawa proud.

Akira Kurosawa's samurai films typically spin tales about scarred and psychologically-damaged heroes who take on impossible odds. Some, like Zatoichi, simply aim to roam, but their deadly skills always attract chaos. Others, like the Seven Samurai, must stand against hordes of bandits. There's always a sense of dire seriousness to the films, a kind of bold valor that permeates throughout. Ghost of Tsushima replicates that feeling, but also plays with the duality of man: The shadow who cares only for killing by any means possible, and the noble hero who stands and fights with pride. In Ghost of Tsushima, you can become the shadow that roams the night or a walking fortress of honor.

To me, this is the most interesting thing about Ghost of Tsushima, this duality. The world pays attention to your choices and your deeds and reacts accordingly. The game is centered around building the legend of Jin Sakai. How you build that legend is up to you.

Ubisoft's transition towards a more digital live games market has utterly transformed its business, from game sales to yearly earnings. In the past 7 years, nearly all of Ubisoft's biggest AAA games have sold over 10 million copies apiece.

Today Ubisoft reported its FY2020 earnings and revealed a surprising metric: 11 games released across the PS4 and Xbox One generation have sold 10 million copies each. Having even three or four games hit 10 million is an amazing accomplishment, but an entire fleet of them is absolutely huge. The range of top-selling games is diverse across Ubi's entire portfolio and isn't just dominated by Assassin's Creed--The Division, Watch Dogs, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six also show up.

"During the prior generation, only the Assassin's Creed franchise and Far Cry 3 reached these levels. This shows how far we've come in deepening and strengthening our portfolio franchises over the past 7 years," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during today's conference call.

Today Nintendo announced Paper Mario: The Origami King, a new game in the series that has a bunch of fresh innovations.

Paper Mario is back on the Nintendo Switch, complete with a new art style that merges 3D polygonal worlds with Mario's 2D sticker shape and even 3D origami. The game has some nifty little advancements and mechanics like Mario's "thousand-fold" arms, which let gamers use the Switch JoyCon motion controls to accordion out his arms and grab objects to solve puzzles. You can even peel the actual world like a sticker to reveal secrets.

There's also a new turn-based battle system in a series of dartboard-like concentric rings that blends strategy with reaction skills. The idea is that you strike enemies when they're lined up in rows on the rings for maximum damage.

Sony's PlayStation 4 lifetime sales now beat 110.4 million, edging closer to the PlayStation 2's long-reigning 155 million. Current trends show the console is unlikely to dethrone the 2000's era best-seller.

Sony's latest FY19 earnings confirm the PS4 has sold-in (shipped) a gigantic 110.4 million consoles since launch in 2013. The financials show a clear decline in total hardware adoption as gamers hold off for the next-gen PlayStation. There's quite a bit of insight to glean here, but the more obvious point is the PS4 probably won't outsell the PlayStation 2 in its lifespan.

Sony sold 13.6 million PS4s in the FY'19 period, down a substantial 23.5% year-over-year. Sony originally expected to sell 15 million consoles in the period, and missed this target by 1.6 million unit sales.Hardware earnings plummeted by 30% year-over-year due to the loss of a big 2018 launch game (likely RDR2). Weighted by this hardware slump, total gaming sales dropped 14% to $18.19 billion.

Ubisoft's earnings slip nearly across the board in FY2020, but microtransaction revenues are up almost 10% year-over-year.

Today Ubisoft announced its FY20 earnings, sending two signals: The company's current strengths and weaknesses, and massive sales are on the horizon for this fiscal year thanks to 5 new AAA games. Net sales revenues dropped double-digit pp's to $1.446 billion, attributed to sales under-performance of key new games like Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. Net bookings were also down nearly 25% YoY to $1.391 billion for similar reasons.

Q4 saw a massive rebound for live games. Assassin's Creed Odyssey sales and microtransaction earnings skyrocketed, and gamers responded incredibly well to the new Breakpoint and Division 2 updates, both of which spiked engagement. Ubisoft's total MAUs tripled in January and hit record highs in February and March. Rainbow Six likewise saw a 15% rise in player recurring investment in the year.

What if the PlayStation 5's DualSense controller actually had a built-in LCD screen? What if it transformed like Optimus Prime? One modder answers that question.

Renowned 3D artist Iskander Utebayev, who's known for crazy iPhone concepts, just made a mind-blowing PS5 controller concept befit for the futuristic year 2020. The custom DualSense is basically a miniature Switch-like hybrid that has a full-color LCD touchscreen panel housed in the center that mirrors the PS5's main output screen.

The rumors were 100% true. Gaming's second best-selling title of all time Grand Theft Auto V is the next free game on the Epic Store.

Epic is about to get a ton more account signups. GTA V is now totally free on the Epic Store, allowing anyone with a PC to access this generation's best-selling game. Everyone's trying to download it right now, crashing the Epic Store. Which is something they should've expected. The game will be available for free on the Epic Games Store until May 21.

This is a massively strategic move for Take-Two Interactive, and it's mostly predicated on one thing: Bringing more players into the digital GTA Online economy. GTA Online is a revenue monster that's generated over $1 billion in monetization earnings four years after launch, and last year alone the game raked in over $500 million from microtransactions and game sales.

Ubisoft once again teases a new Far Cry game could be a part of its huge FY2021 release slate, accompanying big games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Watch Dogs Legion. But COVID-19 may force a delay to next year.

Today Ubisoft announced its full FY2020 earnings, and outlined the future of its games. The company still plans a massive slate of titles to release from now until March 31, 2021. Some games, like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, are set in stone to launch alongside next-gen consoles. Other games could be delayed to the next fiscal year due to COVID-19 complications.

In the earnings brief, Ubisoft says it'll reveal another major AAA game from its "biggest franchises," and reports say this is a new Far Cry title. But it's not 100% certain that the new Far Cry will meet its FY2021 target.

The world's first real-time PlayStation 5 gameplay footage was a dazzling tech demo that pushed the hardware to its limits. How far? The PS5 devkit was able to steadily maintain 1440p 30FPS "most of the time" with cinematic-quality 8K textures, global illumination, and other new advanced techniques.

The new Unreal Engine 5 footage was absolutely incredible and gave us a taste of next-gen console gaming. But there's a few caveats. For one, it's a tech demo, not an actual game. Yes, it's playable with live source code on a PS5 devkit, but it won't actually ship. And two, the demo required intense horsepower for its Nanite system to render the billions of triangles needed for the scenes, and wasn't able to hit 60FPS on the PlayStation 5's 10TFLOP Navi GPU. It also required dynamic resolution scaling, which adjusts resolution on-the-fly to lock in a consistent frame rate. For reference, most of the PS4 Pro's 4K games have dynamic resolution scaling and few are native 4K.

Epic's VP of Engineering Nick Penwarden says the demo hit 1440p 30FPS on PlayStation 5 with dynamic resolution scaling enabled--the resolution spot between 1080p and 4K but at the lower FPS range for these kinds of action-adventure experiences.