Gaming - Page 585

Like every other publisher in the games industry, EA is currently ramping up for next-gen with a slate of new games and IPs.

EA is cooking up something special for next-gen. Madden NFL 21 will lead the charge, but Battlefield 6 will be the main spectacle on a newly revamped Frostbite, followed by Dragon Age 4. But there's also lots of new games in the pipeline, including fresh new IPs. This is a big deal for EA, a company that typically makes the bulk of its billions from annualized sports games like FIFA and Madden.

In its recent FY2020 earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson re-confirms new IPs are indeed on the way and that the upcoming slate is more exciting than ever. Bear in mind these new IPs might be wholly-owned titles, and as such, they'll be gateways to live service monetization. That's EA's bread and butter, after all (EA made $2.8 billion from microtransactions last year, or over half of total revenues).

The masters of horror behind Layers of Fear are at it again. This time Bloober Team brings their penchant for strikingly bizarre visuals and mind-bending horror to the spirit realm.

Today Bloober Team announced their new next-gen game The Medium, a new terrorfest that melds otherworldly Zdiszlaw Beksinski weirdness with a distinctly haunting ghost story feel. In the game you play as Marianne, a medium who can see and sense the afterlife, and you're constantly shifting between the ghost plane and the real world--it gets so bad you can't always tell what's real any more. This duality seems to freely ebb and flow, creating a distinct sense of mental disruption that's part of Bloober's signature style. It also reminds a lot of Alan Wake.

The Medium is set in Bloober's home city of Krakow, Poland, and takes place in the late 1990s. Marianne will have flashbacks and time travel to the Communist-ruled Poland in the 1980s via the spirit realm, creating all sorts of unique opportunities for horror. The score is also being composed by Silent Hill's Akira Yamaoka, so expect enticing audio and music.

EA just reported strong FY2020 earnings on the backs of surging monetization revenues, and recorded a substantial 198% spike in year-over-year profits thanks to a tax benefit.

EA's FY2020 earnings report is packed with good news gaming's third-biggest publisher. EA managed to pull in $5.5 billion in total earnings during the year and its primarily digitally-driven business safeguarded it from big COVID-19 disruption.

Microtransactions and digital earnings once again stole the show. EA made 88% of its total revenues from digital, and just 12% from physical game sales. The company generated $4.052 billion in digital net bookings in the year, which is per usual. Live services, which includes microtransactions from big games like Apex Legends and FIFA, made $2.78 billion, roughly 68% of digital net bookings.

Scorn, one of the most hauntingly mesmerizing games in recent memory, will skip current-gen consoles. It's only coming to PC and Xbox Series X.

I'm beyond hyped for Scorn, Ebb Software's ultra-bizarre horror fest. It's like stepping into an HR Giger painting. Scorn was originally funded via Kickstarter in 2017 and has been knee-deep in misty weirdness since. This is our first update in a long, long time. And it's a big one.

Ebb confirms Scorn will be a next-gen Xbox Series X exclusive, and it's not coming to PS4 or Xbox One systems. The studio simply doesn't feel current-gen is worth it. And yes, the game is still coming. The developers just don't know when.

In a recent earnings call, EA said gamers can upgrade current-gen games to next-gen console versions for free. Turns out there's some limitations and fine print attached to that policy, and they hint EA could release two versions of their future games: a current-gen one, and a next-gen copy.

Today EA confirmed Madden NFL 21 would support Smart Delivery on Xbox Series X. That means you get access to the enhanced next-gen version even if you buy it on Xbox One. But there's a catch: The offer, as EA calls it, is only available for a limited time.

A recent press release outlines the details surrounding Madden 21's next-gen free upgrade: "To receive the offer, players must purchase Madden NFL 21 on Xbox One by December 31, 2020 and upgrade to Xbox Series X by March 31, 2021." The entire thing is head-scratching. By 2021, Madden NFL 21 will be obsolete and replaced by another annual NFL game. That's how EA operates.

Nintendo's latest financials show big growth in both hardware sales and software adoption, leading to tremendous Switch growth across the board.

As Switch hardware breaks 55 million sales worldwide, the system has pushed many more times that in software purchases. Nintendo sold 168.72 million Switch games both physically and digitally in FY2020, up 42.31% from last year.

Total cumulative Nintendo Switch software sales skyrockted by 89% in FY2020 to an incredible 356.24 million units, inching it closer to the 3DS' mighty handheld mark. Right now the Switch is number eight in Nintendo's total software sales charts, and will surpass the Game Boy Advance, 3DS, and SNES next year.

Rumor has it Techland is in shambles, and Dying Light 2 is a total wreck. There's also stirrings that Microsoft could buy Techland and secure the Dying Light IP. These rumors are totally false.

A bit ago a Polish website put up an expose discussing issues at Techland. The essentially tge articlesays Techland is lost with Dying Light 2, and the game was delayed because scope creep is taking a serious toll on the team. Or at least that's what Google translate kicks back.

The truth is a bit different. Techland is doing pretty good right now. Dying Light 2 is still knee-deep in development, and after five years, the team is still releasing new DLC for Dying Light. According to Techland PR manager Ola Sondej, the translation of the article is "totally inaccurate."

BioWare is finally doing it. We're actually getting a fully-fledged Mass Effect remaster on consoles and PC. That's what sources are saying, anyway.

A new Mass Effect trilogy remaster bundle is set to release by March 31, 2021 as part of EA's new release slate, sources tell VentureBeat's Jeff Grubb. BioWare's next game would come full circle for the developers amid a troubled past few years, and could resurrect the franchise. It's likely the ME remaster will help rebuild morale at BioWare, improve gamer relations after after Mass Effect: Andromeda's criticism, and act as a bridge to the new Mass Effect game that's in early pre-production stages.

The timing couldn't be better. Save for Commander Shepard's massively anticipated return, EA's FY2021 games offering is pretty threadbare. The company plans to launch 14 games, but the mix isn't all that exciting and is made up by a strategically-designed dozen of games: 4 sports games, 4 original games, and 4 indies. The other 2 remaining games are mobile titles.

If this is what Assassin's Creed Valhalla looks like on next-gen consoles...we aren't ready.

Today Microsoft showed off the first Xbox Series X gameplay demos, and Ubisoft completely smashed all expectations with their AC: Valhalla footage. Admittedly the footage was captured on PC/devkit hardware that approximates and simulates the Xbox Series X's 12TFLOP Navi GPU and 3.8GHz Zen 2 CPU, but it's quite amazing nonetheless. "Game and console in development, footage representative of expected Xbox Series X gameplay," reads the disclaimer at the beginning of the footage. At the very least the game will be a dazzling showcase on all platforms.

Read Also: Assassin's Creed Valhalla set in 873 AD amid war-torn England

Nintendo just recorded fantastic yearly results driven by huge Switch hardware sales and a strong software lineup.

Three years after release, the Nintendo Switch is still taking the global market by storm. The console's total cumulative worldwide sales now sit at 55.77 million units, up 21.03 million units and representing a mighty 60% year-over-year increase in total sales. Nintendo sold 4.08 million more Switch consoles in FY2020 than it did last year, up 24% YoY.

This strong hardware spike was triggered by a few factors. The cheaper, handheld-only $199 Switch Lite sparked sales growth in the Switch family. The heavy-hitting software lineup which included system-selling megastars like Pokemon: Sword and Shield and Animal Crossing drove continued adoption. Animal Crossing alone has sold 11 million copies in 11 days, making it the "best start ever for a Nintendo title." COVID-19 quarantines also skyrocketed Nintendo's Switch sales in Q4'20 to 3.28 million units, up 32% from last year.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a sales monster, accumulating over 11 million copies sold in its first 11 days.

Today Nintedo laid out its FY2020 earnings report and revealed just how big Animal Crossing has become. Spoiler: It's absolutely mammoth-sized. The new Animal Crossing game on Switch managed to sell 11.77 million copies from launch until Nintendo's fiscal year ended on March 31, 2020. That's 11 million in 11 days, an astronomical figure that eclipses major AAA games (for example, Final Fantasy XV has sold 8.9 million copies to date).

These figures firmly cement Animal Crossing: New Horizons in Nintendo's top 10 best-selling Switch games of all time. Fun fact: Animal Crossing outsold Splatoon 2's massive 140-week sales head start in less than two weeks.

EA confirms it won't charge for patches that upgrade current-gen games for next-gen PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X consoles.

The PS5 and Xbox Series X have two methods to upgrade current-gen games. The hardware will natively boost performance of current-gen games by default (the Xbox Series X can boost games to native 4K, and the PS5 boosts games so much that devs have to manually come in and ensure compatibility). Native upgrades are less potent than manual upgrades. Games can also get special enhancement patches that basically transform them into next-gen versions. We don't know the extent of these manual upgrades, but they may include ray tracing optimizations, higher frame rate perf, and ultra-fast SSD load times.

Luckily, publishers like EA won't charge for these upgrades. And nor should they. If you already own a current-gen game, you shouldn't have to re-buy the game for a newer generation. Remember PS5 and Xbox Series X are a new generation, but they support PS4 and Xbox One games. They're an evolution and an extension of current-gen.

Today Netherealm announced Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath, a huge new expansion that expands the story and adds one of the most iconic 90s heroes of all time.

The new MK11: Aftermath expansion is a pretty big deal for Mortal Kombat fans. Aftermath takes place after the events of the game's dazzling time-travelling narrative and spins a new tale as Fire God Liu Kang teams up with Shang Tsung, Sheeva, and other unlikely allies to battle it out against Kronika.

Read Also: Mortal Kombat 11 Review: Kataclysmic Khaos

New figures from SuperData underline just how big Jedi: Fallen Order is for Star Wars video games.

In less than a year Jedi: Fallen Order, a singleplayer-only game, beat Battlefront II's combined digital live service and monetization revenues. This is huge. Battlefront II has been on the market for over 2 years now and was specifically designed to generate microtransaction revenues. Jedi: Fallen Order was designed to simply sell copies as an offline, static singleplayer game without any multiplayer or social-driven engagement hooks.

Analyst firm SuperData notes JFO managed to oust Battlefront II in its own digital playing field. This means Jedi: Fallen Order's digital sales generated more revenue than Battlefront II's sales and monetization combined. How did this happen?

Cyberpunk 2077 might be the most ambitious game of our time: It's a huge FPS RPG with tons of action, choice, and consequence, and it lets you tailor-make your naughty bits.

A new ESRB listing confirms something pretty surprising: You can adjust the "size and combination" of your genitals. The combination part is pretty interesting and I'll leave that up to your imagination. I'm glad that's confirmed, because we all know it's super important you can size up your bulge in the game--gotta make it realistic, after all.

"The game contains nudity and sexual material: Players can select a gender and customize their character; customization can include depictions of breasts, buttocks, and genitalia, as well as various sizes and combinations of genitals," reads the listing.

Activision reports stellar Q1 2020 earnings, driven by digital surges in monetization, game purchases, and strong engagement.

Actvision's latest earnings report re-affirms it as the lord of monetization, second only to Tencent's mobile might. Activision-Blizzard's Q1 earnings were boosted by COVID-19 quarantines, which saw more players jumping into Call of Duty and Blizzard games over March. Warzone in particular amassed 60 million players and helped spiked microtransions by 20% YoY to $956 million. Warzone also sparked Modern Warfare sales and helped the game become the best Q1 performer in Call of Duty history.

In the three-month period ended March 31, 2020, Activision-Blizzard earned a total of $1.788 billion in net revenues, up a mighty 23% from last year. The company beat its net revenue forecast by $148 million, and total net bookings by $247 million.

Activision confirms Warzone's massive success is spiking Modern Warfare game sales, cementing this F2P-and-premium gameplan as a permanent fixture in the company's business model.

With the new free-to-play Warzone battle royale, Activision has created their own Game Pass effect: A live operation is pushing full game sales while monetizing and engaging players in the process. Warzone features cross-play, cross-SKU, and cross-progression with Modern Warfare, meaning it's also tied into and with the premium game, but it's also a standalone free download. It's the perfect entry point to Activision's billion-dollar live Call of Duty empire. Think of Warzone as the connective sinew in between Call of Duty's muscle.

In its recent earnings report, Activision confirmed two things: Their intended plan to use Warzone as a gateway to full game sales is working, and Warzone is also monetizing players quite strongly.

Ubisoft's new Assassin's Creed Valhalla takes place in a war-torn England during the brutal and ambitious age of Viking invasions.Now Ubisoft pinpoints the exact yearly timeline and highlights what to expect from the game's historical setting.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is set in the bloody backdrop of the 9th century Dark Ages, more specifically during a time of expeditious and violent expansion from the Vikings in Scandinavia. The game chronicles the Norseman's journey from Norway to the Anglo Saxon kingdoms to the south, letting players take part in the chaos of the Viking hordes and their surprisingly skilled settling of England.

Ubisoft confirms Valhalla starts in 873AD when England (or more aptly described as Angland, thus named after the Anglo Saxons that settled the area) comprised of three kingdoms: Northumbria in the north, Mercia in the midlands, and Wessex to the south. King Alfred (also known as Aelfred) the Great reigns over the last unconquered kingdom of Wessex and is shown in the reveal trailer as the game's principal antagonist.

As expected, Respawn Entertainment revealed the next character that will be coming to Apex Legends, introducing Loba, the thief that's hellbent on revenge.

The new character was revealed in the Season 5 trailer titled "Fortune's Favor", where we are introduced to Loba invading what seems to be a secret underground base beneath Kings Canyon. In this base are what seems to be backups for Revenants body in the event of it being destroyed; there's also the original mind that Revenant uses to copy every time he makes another edition of himself.

Loba is unable to destroy the original mind, and instead triggered the facilities' defensive system, barely making it out alive. Throughout her escape, we can see that Loba uses her teleport to get out of several close call scenarios, I'd imagine this will also be her ability in-game. When Loba makes it out of the facility, she meets the rest of the Apex Legends, and her dreaded nemesis, Revenant. Revenant asks her, "come to kill me little girl?"

Halo 2 Anniversary is coming to PC next week on May 12, 2020, dev 343 Industries today confirmed.

The Master Chief Collection's PC port is expanding at a surprisingly quick pace. Just a few weeks after initial beta testing, Halo 2 is coming to PC next week via Steam, the Microsoft Store, and Xbox Game Pass, complete with optimizations across the board. This version is a port of the 2014 Halo 2 Anniversary remaster included with MCC on Xbox, and includes PC bells and whistles like native 4K support, 21:9 ultrawide aspect ratio support, high-res textures, and uncapped frame rates for higher-end PCs.

Expect battle rifle and grenade carnage, dying a whole lot in the tough campaign (modern shooters really do spoil us), and lots of nostalgia. The multiplayer includes 7 classic maps revamped with modern graphics and assets