Gaming - Page 579

The Xbox Series X will play thousands of backwards compatible games across three generations, and all of them will harness the full native power of the system's 12TFLOP GPU and 3.8GHz Zen 2 CPU.

The new next-gen Xbox Series X also has serious next-gen backwards compatibility boosts that can significantly improve in-game performance. The Xbox Series X will natively enhance all backwards compatible games to massive levels, doubling frame rates (if a game runs at 30FPS base, it'll run at 60FPS on XSX, and up to 120FPS for games that normally hit 60FPS), simulating HDR visuals, tapping the built-in 2.5GB/sec PCIe 4.0 SSD for ultra-fast load times, and raising fidelity up to native 4K.

Microsoft previously confirmed Gears of War 4 Ultimate hits native 4K on the XSX without any upgrades from developers.

I'd like to preface this comparison by saying it's not nearly as dynamic as I'd like it to have been. There's many other companies that make much more in microtransaction and monetization revenues than the ones listed here. And even the ones listed in the graph come with some caveats, which we'll go over below.

Live services are a billion-dollar business and the GaaS model won't go anywhere anytime soon. It's just too profitable. All of gaming's biggest publishers do it, from overseas titans like NetEase and Nexon to Western giants like Activision and EA. But how much do these games actually make every year? Quite a bit. We've compared some of the top earning companies that monetize both F2P and premium games.

NetEase leads the charge with over $6 billion generated from games in 2019, the bulk of which is from microtransactions, but this also includes full game sales. The company has stated in its filings that a "significant amount" of its games earnings come from monetized F2P titles, so we felt more comfortable including them on the list.

Microsoft is ramping right up into the launch of its next-gen Xbox Series X console, with Phil Spencer having a chat with the now ex-Nintendo America boss Reggie Fils-Aime on the Talking Games podcast. Check that out below:

In the chat, Spencer reiterates that Microsoft's supply chain is healthy and that they should be able to feed enough Xbox Series X consoles out to the world to all those hungry next-gen console gamers. Spencer said: "In our supply chain, we feel good about the hardware side. Feels like we'll be able to get enough units"

He continued: "And you know, we're pretty committed, as we've talked about to a worldwide launch, which regretfully, we didn't do with Xbox One. You remember watching that from Nintendo campus. It took us months and months to hit some of the incredibly important markets and worldwide launch is important to us".

Hello Games seems intent on not adding microtransactions to No Man's Sky, and is pulling some strategically-timed maneuvers to still make money from No Man's Sky.

No Man's Sky is one of the most interesting live games in the industry. It's a premium game that doesn't bake monetization into its online multiplayer hooks. The game brazenly defies what I call the Engagement Cycle by releasing massive game-changing expansions for free--something that any other publisher would nickle and dime you for--and instead relies on full game sales. So how does No Man's Sky dodge monetization so easily? It's actually pretty tactical.

Soon No Man's Sky will be available on Game Pass on both Xbox One and PC. This is absolutely huge for any game, especially one with a live audience. Game Pass has 10 million subscribers who will all instantly get access to No Man's Sky across two platforms. Not only will Hello Games make money from Game Pass subs, but the service is proven to actually spark full game sales of the titles that're available. After playing on Game Pass, users are eager to permanently own the titles they like.

Today Naughty Dog released new State of Play gameplay footage for The Last of Us 2, and one of Sony's dead-but-not-forgotten systems made an appearance.

The Last of Us 2's newest trailer is full of death. Ellie just massacres her way through the game, burning, slicing, stabbing, shooting, and generally brutally murdering everything in her way. But there's one dead thing that made a surprising appearance in the footage: Sony's ill-fated PlayStation Vita handheld.

The trailer has a neat little nod to the PS Vita--one of the WLF faction members is playing a game (see if you can guess which one) on the Vita when Ellie sneaks up on her. And just like the Vita is in real life, the lady is dead at the end of the footage. Sadly, Ellie doesn't pick up the Vita or mess with it, and we're not sure if you actually can.

Fans are still iffy on Square Enix's new original Avengers game, and for good reason: We simply haven't seen all that much of it yet. But Square Enix will soon change that.

On the heels of E3's cancellation, many pubs have moved to their own digital stream events. Square Enix has no plans to lump all their reveals and updates in one big package. Instead, they'll cut them up and serve them over time. New Outriders gameplay is coming tomorrow, May 28, and new Marvel Avenger's footage will drop on June 24.

So what can we expect from the Avengers update? We already know most of the pertinent details about the Avengers game: It's a live service title with up to 4 player co-op, complete with offline singleplayer. It's a huge grind fest with 10 different crafting materials, and it'll be monetized with cosmetic microtransaction skins straight out of the comics.

Sony plans to show off next-gen PlayStation 5 games during a special reveal event set for Wednesday, June 3, sources tell Bloomberg.

Although Sony has yet to announce plans, we now have multiple sources reporting on a June PS5 reveal event. The first event will center around PlayStation 5 games and Sony is said to carve up other announcements for separate reveals. The game selection could include a mix of next-gen exclusives as well as current-gen games that're enhanced on the new console.

Sony confirmed PS4 games will run on the PS5, and that the next-gen system's native boost mode is so powerful that all current-gen games have to be revamped to ensure compatibility.

UPDATE: Take-Two tells GamesIndustry.biz the marketing spend is only for third-party games, not internally-developed titles like Grand Theft Auto 6.

Take-Two plans to spend $89 million on marketing in FY2024, which likely coincides with GTA 6's launch timing.

Take-Two's recent Form 10-K SEC filing might've inadvertently confirmed GTA 6's release window. The form shows Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive plans to spend $89.2 million in Fiscal Year 2024, which indicates something big is on the way. Companies typically spend millions for big marketing pushes ahead of major new releases, and for Take-Two, it doesn't get any bigger than Grand Theft Autio.

If you've got the room in your gaming space as well as your own bike, you can get it rigged up for some indoor cycling -- in one of the most interesting mods I've seen for Grand Theft Auto V.

The new GTBikeV mod lets you use your real bike to ride around the virtual streets of Los Santos in Grand Theft Auto V. Not just that, but you can also do some drive by shootings and cause general havoc in the game, all while getting fit in your living room.

Makinolo, the creator of the mod, explains GTBikeV: "GTBikeV is a mod for GTA V that turns a smart bike trainer, or turbo trainer, into the game controller, making your game time actual training time. You'll have a cycling workout inmersed (sic.) in the GTA V world environment".

You probably didn't want it, but it's coming anyway: Microsoft has just unveiled its official Xbox clothing line.

The company teamed with Meta Threads on the Xbox clothing line, which has on offer: hoodies, t-shirts, joggers, and more. Not just that, but alongside the Xbox clothes we have some Minecraft, Gears of War, Forza, Halo, Sea of Thieves, Mixer, and other brands and franchises that Microsoft owns along with Xbox. Check out the entire range here.

If you want pure Xbox clothes, there's the Curvilinear Hoodie for $60, a long sleeve tee for $35, a flex tee for $25, and a bomber jacket for $80. There's a bunch of other Xbox clothes on offer here.

It was just two weeks ago now when 2K Games announced its new Mafia Trilogy, a new definitive collection of their infamous crime drama franchise. While it looks absolutely stunning in its remake goodness, it's not fairing too well on consoles:

Mafia II: Definitive Edition in particular has some major issues on consoles, with the in-depth folks at Digital Foundry ripping Mafia II: Definitive Edition apart and seeing how it ticks. The Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game don't run the game at 4K -- this includes the flagship Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro consoles.

But it gets worse: the console versions of Mafia II: Definitive Edition see performance drop down to just 20FPS.

For the first time in 8 years, Blizzcon has been cancelled and won't be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in California.

Blizzard today confirmed Blizzcon 2020 isn't happening. The risks for coronavirus exposure are just too high, but we won't see any kind of digital-only stream replacement either.

"Ultimately, after considering our options, we've come to the very difficult decision to not have BlizzCon this year," Blizzard executive producer Saralyn Smith said in a blog post.

A new NoClip documentary spills details about one of the coolest Half-Life games that never released.

In 2007, Arkane Studios was working on a Half-Life 2 expansion called Ravenholm. The game starred an HEV suit-wearing Adrian Shephard (yes, Shephard from Opposing Force) and had a decently playable alpha build complete with polish, lighting effects, physics systems--the works. Arkane had actually designed 9-10 mission for Ravenholm before the project was abruptly cancelled by Valve.

Ravenholm was pretty innovative and quirky in its own ways. It introduced new weapons like the nailgun, which shot spikes that could conduct electricity to solve puzzles and interact with the environment in big ways. The game had lots of physics hijinks and looks pretty damn fun. You could wreak total havoc on the environment by setting traps for enemies, for instance. There was also the charge gun, an electricity-powered gun that could be refilled by nearby electric arcs and sparks.

What if Nintendo sold customized Switch docks made out of old-school consoles? One modder answers the question with this nifty NES Switch dock.

Redditor and skilled modder IMOKRUOK created their very own Switch dock out of an old-school Nintendo Entertainment System, adding some much-needed style to the console-handheld hybrid's charging/video-out station. The dock itself is made out of an actual NES shell, but the internals have been scooped out and replaced with the Switch's internal dock PCB. There's a push panel at the top to protect the USB-C connector when it's not docked, and the NES even lights up when the system is slotted in.

There's even USB extenders that plug up to the NES' controller ports for extra peripherals. Plus the buttons actually work and you can press them to turn the dock on and off. Check out this gallery of images to see how the dock was built.

It's not that hard to run Fortnite at 90FPS on the PC even at 1080p on a mid-range graphics card, but on a smartphone? It's a growing trend that the gaming smartphone companies like ASUS and Razer have been doing, thanks to Qualcomm's continued push in SoC tech with its Snapdragon range of processors.

But now OnePlus is joining the group -- with the flagship OnePlus 8 smartphone now capable of running Fortnite at 90FPS. The OnePlus 8 smartphone packs a flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, as well as a display that can pump away at 90Hz.

OnePlus worked with Epic Games in order to balance the optimizations needed for the OnePlus-specific build of Fortnite, with GameSpot getting an exclusive look at the Unreal Engine-powered battle royale champion running at 90FPS on the flagship OnePlus 8 smartphone.

Quantic Dream unleashed their games onto the Epic Games Store not too long ago, but now it's time to release their games on Valve's digital storefront: Steam.

Detroit: Become Human, Heavy Rain, and Beyond: Two Souls will all drop on Steam on June 18 -- with demos to all 3 of those games available right now on Steam with some links below. The games were originally released as PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 exclusives, but now Quantic Dream is giving PC gamers the chance to play their games -- as the developer shifts into making multiplatform games.

The developer has received "tremendous" reception from teh PC gaming community following the news that it would be making their games available on the PC. You can read more about that here.

I still remember wanting the NES Power Glove when it first debuted in the 90s, but the controller disappeared about as quick as it launched -- far ahead of its time. It's 2020 now, so let's re-visit, shall we?

Look Mum No Computer, or Sam Battle, has hacked himself an NES Power Glove into a quasi-gesture controller for his modular synth setup. Battle has to just slip his hand into the Power Glove, bend and wiggle his fingers, and he can make adjustments to the filter cutoff, pitch, pulse width, and volume of his audio.

Not just that, but he also made his own animatronic hand that takes input from the synth, to control the glove -- which, in turn, controls the synth. Geeky, garage band-y type of stuff and it's all with the Power Glove -- I love it.

The Switch Lite and transforming Switch have both sold over 800,000 units in the United States in April, the NPD Group reports.

April 2020 was a huge month for the games industry thanks to coronavirus lockdowns. Not only have digital earnings hit a new high of $10.5 billion, but game spending in the U.S. is up to an all-time new April high of $1.46 billion.

Now we have more insight on how these numbers break down. Hardware was up an incredible 163% YoY to $420 million, driven primarily by the Nintendo Switch's huge sales surge. The PS4 and Xbox One also saw a hefty uptick in sales too, despite being 7 years into their respective lifecycles and a brand new console generation on the way.

A neat little infograph from SatelliteInternet compiles Google Trends data to see which retro consoles U.S. states like the most.

The data compares current interest in three systems across the continental United States--Gamecube, Nintendo 64, and PlayStation 2. The info isn't representative of total historic console hardware or software sales, but moreso the overall current Google Trends data. Basically the idea here is to see what retro console that each state is currently searching for.

So far the PlayStation 2 is the most popular. These findings show gamers are more interested in replaying old PS2 games than other systems. Second is GameCube, which is interesting considering the Nintendo 64 has outsold the GameCube by 11 million units in lifetime sales. Still, though, the GameCube's game library is more mysterious and harder to find. The N64 takes last place in overall U.S. state interest.

According to a new graphic from Learn Bonds, the console and handheld hardware market has sold over 1.56 billion units since the Atari 2600's release in 1977. But some of the numbers are off.

So just how many consoles, Gameboys, Game Gears, and other handhelds have been sold to date? The latest findings from Learn Bonds give us ballpark figures of how 25 platforms sold across multiple geneartions, but there's lots of caveats.

Fist, some of the data is erroneous. The PlayStation 4, for example, has sold 110.4 million units to date, not 109.86 million. And the PS2's numbers from Sony are at 155 million, not 157 million. Other mix-ups include the 3DS' numbers, which at the time of writing sit at 77 23 million, not 75 million. Wii U sales are also slightly inflated--Nintendo's figures sit at 13.56 million.