Gaming - Page 598

Former BioWare dev Mike Laidlaw just left Ubisoft Quebec, where he was working on a new game for nearly a year.

Back in December 2018, Ubisoft Quebec announced Dragon Age vet Mike Laidlaw had joined the team to work on an unannounced game. Laidlaw actually served as creative consultant for nine months prior to the announcement, and then joined the Ubisoft studio as creative director. Laidlaw moved his family from Edmonton to Quebec for his new role.

Now little over a year after the announcement, Laidlaw confirms he has left Ubisoft Qubec. "Today (Jan 31st) is my last day with Ubisoft. Huge thanks to the talented and welcoming folks at Ubisoft Quebec City for my time there. Now to take stock and figure out what's next!" Laidlaw said on Twitter.

The Taipei Game Show has been delayed to Summer 2020 as a security measure against China's growing coronavirus hazards.

China's coronavirus outbreak is spreading fast, and so is paranoia and fear, leading to interruptions in gaming hardware production and the closure of many overseas facilities.

Now the health risk is affecting big events in Asia. First Blizzard cancelled the Overwatch League esports event in China, and now the Taipei Games Show, a key event that Sony planned to attend this month that attracts over 320,000 people, has been delayed. The move comes after the coronavirus spread to Taiwan with 10 confirmed cases.

Steam's concurrent users just hit a new all-time high of 18.8 million, the largest point in the last two years.

Even with the Epic Store's popularity, the Fortnite titan still hasn't dethroned Steam (and likely won't for a long time). As per SteamDB's findings, more Steam players are jumping online at once than ever before; roughly 18.8 million users played Steam at the same time, up from the previous 18.5 million record held two years ago. There's roughly 264,000 more users logged in at once now than two years ago, representing a 1.42% increase in concurrent users.

Steam's MAUs (monthly active users, a metric that shows a service's overall attraction rate) are pretty high and shows the platform isn't being jeopardized. In 2018, Steam had a tremendous 90 million MAUs with over half of those users signing in and playing every day. The Epic Store had 108 million customers in 2019, the company said, but no MAU metrics were given, and bear in mind the free monthly games are a big reason people sign in and use the store.

Nintendo's mobile monetization strategy, which now includes paid monthly season passes, is enough to make Activision, Tencent, and Take-Two proud. Even after making $1 billion in lifetime mobile earnings since 2015, Nintendo wants more money.

Nintendo today announced yet another paid monthly subscription service for its mobile games. The latest free-to-play mobile game to get a subscription is Fire Emblem: Heroes with its new Feh Pass. The Feh Pass costs $9.50 a month and unlocks goodies every month for players, including some pay-to-win mechanics like the new re-act function or auto-start.

This is Nintendo's third time rolling out a subscription pass for a mobile game. First we saw the Mario Kart Tour Gold Pass for $5 a month, then two subs for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp--the $2.99 Happy Helper sub, and the $7.99 Cookie and Depot plan.

Sony is beating Microsoft in the next-gen console battle for now, where in development kit form the PlayStation 5 is beating the Xbox Series X according to the latest whispers online.

An industry insider has posted on NeoGAF saying that the PlayStation 5 is better than the Xbox Series X in development kit form, with 'BGs' saying: "At the beginning of the year PlayStation 5 was still the one that offered the best performance. I don't know if that has changed with the new Devkits, I don't have access to that information at this time and personally I think that (theoretically) I won't have physical access until early summer, for my part".

The poster continues, adding that the differences between the consoles this generation won't be that great -- although I think we know that. They'll both be using very similar semi-custom designs from AMD with ray tracing, 4K 60FPS support, 120FPS support, 8K video support, and so much more.

CD Projekt RED is deep in development of Cyberpunk 2077 and while the game was recently delayed, it's still making headlines -- and today, it's about VR.

During a recent interview with OnMSFT, John Mamais from the team of CD Projekt RED talked about the possibilities of VR and Cyberpunk 2077. Mamais said that the team at CDPR has been playing around with an experimental version of Cyberpunk 2077 in VR, and while they've worked on it, they're "not doing anything with it yet".

Mamais explained: "We tried. We were thinking about VR but, yeah, we're not doing anything with VR. We got the VR dev kits but... some things would work in VR but, I think, it's not really viable yet. You're not making a lot of money in VR yet. It's very experimental and niche, yeah. I would like to. I like VR but we're not doing anything with it yet".

Sony should be detailing its next-gen PlayStation 5 console in full in the coming weeks, but our friends at LetsGoDigital have been ahead of that for a while now -- so much so that they think Samsung will be providing a new NVMe-based 980 EVO SSD.

Samsung unveiled its new PCIe 4.0-based 980 PRO SSD at CES 2020 earlier this year, touting huge 6.5GB/sec speeds -- but that's a new flagship NVMe M.2 SSD and we shouldn't expect the very best that isn't even available to consumers on the PC, inside of a mass-produced next-gen console. This is where the 980 EVO SSD comes into play.

The difference between the EVO and PRO ranges of Samsung's NVMe-based SSDs is that the EVO family of drives uses TLC triple-level cell VNAND memory chips. This means Sony could be asking for mass-produced 980 EVO drives from Samsung, offering larger capacities but it could come at a (slight) cost in terms of performance and the life of the SSD. We're still talking about crazy 6GB/sec speeds that will see games loading in less than 10 seconds, and in some cases -- even less than 1 second with a PlayStation 5 prototype running Spider-Man.

Nintendo is deep into the development of a follow up to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with the sequel rumored for release in 2020 -- but it seems Nintendo is having a little trouble on it.

According to Nintendo insider Sabi, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 development is "taking longer than anticipated", so it will miss this year's holiday release. Nintendo announced The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 during E3 2019 last year, which was quite the surprise for Zelda fans around the world -- myself included.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 will be darker than its predecessor, with game director Eji Aonuma telling IGN in June 2019: "The new Breath of the Wild or the sequel to it, it's not necessarily going to be related to Majora's mask or inspired by it... What we showed you currently is a little darker".

Nintendo plans to add more appealing content to Switch Online to ensure users keep their subscriptions active.

Retention is the most challenging part of any service like Xbox LIVE Gold, PlayStation Plus, and Switch Online. It's easier to get people to subscribe the first time than it is to keep them subscribed. The trick is to offer enough so that users want to keep their subs active after they buy in. Right now the only real appeal of Nintendo's Switch Online is the free NES and SNES games, but that could change soon as Nintendo pledges to expand the service.

Thanks to Switch Online's lower $4 a month price tag, the service has broken 15 million paid subscribers. That means roughly 28% of Switch owners subscribe to Switch Online, which is typical for these services (PS Plus users break roughly 30-35% and Xbox LIVE is unknown). But keeping those users subscribed is difficult. Nintendo says it plans to add "more features and fun" to the Switch through the service...but that's maddeningly vague.

Sony's PlayStation 4 has sold more than 1.18 billion games worldwide, the company today confirmed.

Even nearly seven years into its lifecycle, the PS4 continues its juggernaut success in the games industry with huge software sales. The PS4 has now sold 1.181 billion games to date across digital and physical releases as of January 31, 2020, complemented by 106 million PS4 console install base.

Sony managed to sell 31 million games in a month's time (from December 2019 to January 2020), representing a 2.6% uptick and a tremendous 28% year-over-year spike. Top five digital sales leaders include Call of Duty Modern Warfare (which was also the best-selling game of 2019 in the U.S.), Minecraft, GTA V, and NBA 2K20.

Nintendo wants to keep engaging users well past game releases, and plans to roll out more DLC and expansion content in Switch titles.

Nintendo is evolving. No longer content with being left behind in the monetization world, Nintendo has updated its games business model in an non-invasive way. We've seen the Switch's biggest games get post-launch DLC, and some, like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, have piecemeal microtransactions as well as multiple fighter passes. This trend continues with Pokemon Sword and Shield's $30 expansion pass, and the $16 a year Pokemon Home subscription.

In a recent investor's meeting, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa confirms that DLC will continue as a big part of Switch games.

Wizards of the Coast, the company behind Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, just opened an ambitious new games development team with a superstar team made up of BioWare devs.

The new studio is called Archetype Entertainment, and is made up of ex-BioWare experts with stellar RPG experience like James Ohlen (lead designer on Dragon Age: Origins, Baldur's Gate), Drew Karpyshyn (writer on Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and a handful of DnD novels), and Chad Robertson (head of live services on Anthem). Ohlen is leading Archetype and Robertson will serve as general manager.

Predictably, Archetype's first game is a story-driven RPG that aims to be the best on the market. Ex-BioWare devs basically want to take on BioWare and fill the Mass Effect-shaped void in our lives. The new project is set in a fresh IP with sci-fi themes and will be released on multiple systems. This isn't exactly a total surprise--back in April 2019, Wizards announced it had conscripted Ohlen to make a new innovative games IP.

Today Square Enix dropped a big new trailer for Final Fantasy 7 Remake to hype up fans...and it's worked amazing well.

Square Enix is going all-in with Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and rightly so: It's one of their most lauded games of all time. The Remake's CGI scenes look absolutely incredible, breathing new life into the classic RPG while even rivaling Advent Children's visuals. Like all Final Fantasy games, the Remake is a real spectacle of talent. But what makes the game so impressive to me is how it seamlessly switches from those cutscenes over to actual gameplay without losing any fidelity, or missing a beat. The swap is done in real-time and doesn't break the immersion one bit.

The new trailer has an eclectic mix of chaos, chicanery, and amazing-looking eye candy. In a very real way, FF7 Remake blurs the line between a theatrical action film experience with the thrill of gaming, all set in a mythos we know and love. The footage has Cloud's famous cross-dressing mission (which is done impeccably well), Red XIII's triumphant reveal, explosive combat that shows Leviathan and the Chocobo Mog summons, and the battle-ridden journey deep into the heart of Shinra Corporation's nefarious deeds.

In its recent quarterly results briefing, Nintendo made one point clear: They're taking the iterative approach with hardware, and will stretch the Switch's longevity across many more years. Essentially the Switch breaks the conventional hardware lifecycle and changes how Nintendo thinks about overall cadence of system releases--the same way the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are extensions of current-gen.

As such, Nintendo isn't ready to replace the existing models. Nintendo currently has no plans to eclipse the Switch or Switch Lite with a souped up 4K-ready Switch Pro in 2020.

"Regarding Nintendo Switch, we believe that it is important to continue to communicate the appeal of both Nintendo Switch systems and expand the installed base. Please note that we have no plans to launch a new Nintendo Switch model during 2020," Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said in the briefing.

EA plans to release 14 games total in Fiscal Year 2021 (April 1, 2020 - March 31, 2021), and 8 of them will be big non-sports releases.

EA's recent Q3'2020 earnings call was jam-packed full of info on the company's future plans. We know a new Battlefield game is set for FY2022, and that EA is now open to making more singleplayer Star Wars games. Now we have insight into it's upcoming pipeline for next-gen console launches in 2020.

The billion-dollar publisher plans to release no less than 14 games total in Fiscal Year 2021, which folds into the PS5 and Xbox Series launches in Holiday 2020: four sports games, including Madden and FIFA, four mystery titles, four published indies, and two mobile games. It's the mystery titles in the middle that piqued our interest.

Jedi: Fallen Order's performance surprised EA, and now the publisher is open to a wider scope of Star Wars games instead of just online live service titles.

Jedi: Fallen Order is doing so well that it's changed how EA is approaching Star Wars games. Well, Respawn's singleplayer Jedi fantasy isn't singehandedly responsible for this shift--Battlefront II's massive lootbox controversy helped grab EA's attention--but the game's tremendous sales reception is turning EA's head. The publisher originally expected Jedi: Fallen Order to sell between 6-8 million copies by March 2020, but the game's already beaten that forecast, so they've raised it to 10 million.

Now EA says they're looking to explore the full spectrum of Star Wars gaming experiences, which is PR-speak for "we're open to making more singleplayer experiences."

The release of The Outer Worlds was met was great support by fans, as the Obsidian Entertainment title was enjoyed on consoles and PC, it's time for the Nintendo Switch to get some love.

The Outer Worlds was released back on October 25th, 2019, and while the space adventure title did receive some criticism for its length, it was regarded as an overall decent release. The single-player RPG title only had about 20 hours of the campaign, but Obsidian does plan on releasing a DLC that will add some more enjoyable hours.

Nintendo Switch users will soon be able to enjoy those 20+ hours in portable mode as the Private Division Twitter account has announced that on March 20th The Outer Worlds will be coming to the Nintendo Switch. According to the post seen above, there will be no game card available. Instead, The Outer Worlds will be a fully digital purchase. The Outer Worlds on Nintendo Switch will debut on March 20th for $60.

Respawn has just unveiled the new Season 4 trailer to Apex Legends, and with it has teased what looks to be an awesome new hero in Revenant. Check it out:

Revenant is a new assassin which hasn't been totally detailed yet, but he has "unnatural" abilities where he will use them on the battle (royale) field to "haunt his enemies and defy death". He seems literally unstoppable in the trailer, but in the game he will take a few shots and be downed and require assistance from a team mate to get up. Still, Revenant looks like he could be a blast to play.

The original trailer for Revenant makes me want full length versions of this stuff from Respawn and EA, as it really is kick ass work that they do.

Blizzard is hard at work on what should be some massively popular games being released in the (hopefully) near future, with the likes of Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 -- but what about after that?

The developer looks to be building a new game engine, with Blizzard looking for a new Associate Software Engineer, Graphics for a new Shared Game Engine. The company explains in the official job listing on its website: "Blizzard Entertainment is developing a modern, cross-platform game engine to share across all of Blizzard and power the future of Blizzard games".

Blizzard is looking for someone that has skills in "modern graphics backends" including DirectX 12, Vulkan, and Metal. The low-level APIs are good for games made by Blizzard, which are never the most graphically intensive games, nor are they the most graphically demanding. We could even expect that this engine is being used in games like Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4, but that remains to be seen.

DICE is currently experimenting with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X devkits in prep for its next big mainline Battlefield game, which is still due out in 2021 or early 2022.

In a recent earnings call, EA reiterates its plan to release a new Battlefield game on next-gen consoles by March 31, 2022. The idea is that EA plans to skip the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X console launches in Holiday 2020 and give DICE more time to develop their Frostbite engine for next-gen, and wait until the playerbase and install base matures. This also makes sense as a lot of EA's internal studios use Frostbite.

"We expect live services to continue to drive growth in Fiscal 2021 and for growth to accelerate in Fiscal 2022, led by a new Battlefield," said EA's Blake Jorgensen.