Gaming - Page 628

Free-to-play battle royale sensation Fortnite dominated yet another year of gaming, making more money that some publishers and developers make all year.

According to SuperData's new yearly report, Fortnite was the best-earning game of 2019 with over $1 billion in revenue generated from in-game microtransactions.

"Fortnite clinched the top spot for the second year in a row, generating $1.8 billion in 2019. The enduring popularity of Fortnite is partially attributable to crossover promotions with pop culture blockbusters like Avengers, Stranger Things and Star Wars," analyst firm SuperData said.

Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 will outsell the Xbox Series X by virtue of PS4 backward compatibility, IHS Markit analyst Piers-Harding Rolls predicts.

According to new analyst predictions, the PS4's current lead over the Xbox One will help Sony beat Microsoft in next-gen console sales. How? Backwards compatibility. The PS4's massive 100 million+ install base carries with it hundreds of millions of game purchases, all of which will be playable on the PlayStation 5. That means current PS4 owners are much more likely to not only stay with PlayStation, but buy into the new PS5 hardware because their library of games carries forward to next-gen.

"I expect PS5 to outsell Xbox Series X in 2020, but for both platforms to sell more consoles at launch than both the PS4 and Xbox One did back in 2013," Harding-Rolls told GamesIndustry.biz. "One new factor for this upcoming generation is the impact of backwards compatibility on brand loyalty and audience transition. I think we'll see less brand switching as a result.

Nintendo will release a new souped-up Switch Pro in 2020 with 4K gaming support, Kantan Games analyst Serkan Toto predicts.

Nintendo could make a splash in 2020's next-gen market with a new Switch model, complete with beefier internal hardware like a new chipset and increased RAM to enable 4K gaming. Now that Nintendo has the handheld market completely dominated with the base Switch and on-the-go Switch Lite, it might be time for Nintendo to challenge the upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X directly.

"There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Nintendo will launch a Switch Pro in 2020, my guess is at $399," Toto told GamesIndustry.biz.

To kick off 2020, January's free games on PS Plus are some absolutely fantastic titles. If you haven't played either of these games, now your chance to jump into the action, completely free.

PS Plus subscribers will be able to download Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Goat Simulator completely free of charge until the 3rd of February. Follow the incredible journey of treasure hunter Nathan Drake in Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. Become immersed within the cast of characters and the amazing world that Naughty Dog has created.

Goat Simulator, simply put, is a unique game. If you have never played the game before, I guarantee you haven't played anything as strange as this. Players take control of a humble goat and are thrown into a world where the more havoc you reek on its occupants, the more points you accumulate. The trailer for Goat Simulator is located in the entirety of this article.

Have you ever just loved a game so much that you want to make a real-life weapons arsenal of the in-game weapons? This Reddit user has.

Fans can sometimes go above and beyond when it comes to making things from their favorite games, and there's no better place than to share that effort than Reddit. Reddit user tomvdcr posted onto the r/zelda subreddit with the above image, saying that these are "all the breath of the wild weapons I have made over the last 2 years".

Firstly, if you haven't played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you are missing out on a fantastic game. Secondly, if you have played the game, then you will appreciate the level of detail tomvdcr has gone into. According to the thread, Tom used PVC pipes and EVA foam to do most of the creation.

Microsoft has just released a new video onto their Microsoft Flight Simulator YouTube Channel that reveals that the game will feature multiple seasons.

The video is titled "Let it snow!", and begins with an opening show over New York City in Autumn. We then see the city become slowly covered in snow as the season changes to Winter, eventually blanketing snow all over the buildings and central park. Microsoft Flight Simulator will use a huge amount of data from Bing Maps, and through Microsoft's cloud, it will be streamed directly to your PC to give you photo-realistic models of real Earth.

It should also be noted that Microsoft Flight Simulator will utilise real-time weather data, so if a storm is happening right above your house and you are wondering what would happen if a plane flew right into it -- you can answer that question in-game. Since Flight Simulator will be using real-time weather data, this would mean that when seasons are changing in real-life, we should see a reflection of that in-game.

What gamer doesn't like free games? Well, the Epic Games Store is currently giving away a considerable amount of free games.

Apart of the "12 free Days of Games" promotion that Epic Games is currently running, gamers will be able to claim $80 worth of free games. These games include some large franchise titles such as Darksiders: Warmastered Edition, Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition, and Steep.

The promotion is currently slated to run until the 9th of January at 11 AM ET. If you are interested in checking out any of the Darksiders games or would like to jump into some wild action in Steep, head on over to the Epic Games Store to claim your free games. A link can be found here.

The new revised Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite systems have been hacked thanks to a new custom modchip.

Back in 2019, Nintendo used NVIDIA's revised 16nm Tegra X214 SoC in two new Switch models: The slightly modified 2019 Switch with a bigger battery, and the handheld-only Switch Lite. The whole idea behind this refresh was to improve battery life, increase thermal efficiency, and most importantly, close a hardware vulnerability that hackers had been exploiting since 2017 to run pirated software on the device.

The on-chip backdoor has been closed, but that didn't stop hackers from finding a way. TeamXecutor has created a new customized modchip that allows SX OS to run on the new revised Switch and Switch Lite models that use the new NVIDIA 16nm Tegra chip.

Square Enix plans to release a Final Fantasy 7 Remake game demo sometime in the future, and now we have footage of the playable demo in action.

The Final Fantasy 7 Remake game demo is very real. The demo was originally spotted on Gamestat, a tracking service that shows all new games and content coming to the PlayStation Store. The demo should be free, it may showcase roughly 1-2 hours of play, and it's coming to the PS4.

Someone got a hold of a leaked copy of the demo and put it up online, showing the first 3 minutes of prologue cinematic sequences. The visuals are absolutely incredible and breathe new life into the 1997 RPG classic, but all-in-all it's not much different than the official footage we've already seen. It's still pretty exciting because it's not straight from Square Enix.

Capcom could be developing Dragon's Dogma 2 in the RE Engine with original game director Hideaki Itsuno at the helm. And it could be released for next-gen consoles.

Capcom is back on top. We've seen a drastic turnaround from thanks to massive heavy-hitters like Monster Hunter World (its best-selling game of all time), Resident Evil 7, Devil May Cry 5, and Resident Evil 2 Remake. With this stable base of earnings, Capcom now wants to revisit old series by "reviving and awakening dormant intellectual properties." This leaves lots of exciting possibilities, including a Dino Crisis Remake and a Dragon's Dogma RPG sequel.

It gets better. Original Dragon's Dogma game director Hideaki Itsuno just teased a brand new game on Twitter with a short, tantalizing message: "2019 was the best year. Thank you to Devil May Cry fans. We will continue to work on the next project," Itsuno said.

Rumor has it Microsoft will release two next-gen consoles this year: The monstrously powerful (and expensive) Xbox Series X with its 12TFLOPs of power, and a cheaper disc-less system codenamed Lockhart with 4 TFLOPs of power. But going digital-only is a mistake, at least from a consumer's point of view.

Microsoft loves digital gaming. The Xbox brand is now built on digital engagement, a rich ecosystem made up of a myriad of subscriptions like Xbox LIVE and Game Pass that all strategically synergize with each other. Microsoft wants you locked into this landscape as much as possible for one big reason: Investment. When your entire games library is all-digital, you're not going to just start trading in your games or toss in your Xbox.

You're in what Phil Spencer calls The Gamer's Journey, a cyclic business model with tons of online multiplayer-driven games, microtransactions, friend and community interactions, and an ever-evolving storefront-service combo that's predicated on making you "sticky" in the digital ecosystem.

New leaks show the Xbox Series X could be 33% more powerful than the PlayStation 5, with a sizable 55% leap in GPU compute units. But how many third-party devs will push this new monster-eating console to its limits? Will devs play it safe and bet on the PlayStation 5 instead?

Game developers will be very busy in 2020. This is especially true for third-party developer-publishers like Capcom, Ubisoft, Take-Two, EA, and Activision-Blizzard that all release multi-platform games. Assuming the reports are right, this year developers will have to make games playable on eight different Xbox and PlayStation consoles. It's all thanks to the new hybrid business model that merges the best things about the iterative console cycle like backward compatibility with a full-on next-gen reset, like substantially more powerful hardware.

But next-gen consoles won't instantly replace current-gen systems when they launch in 2020. The Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 will be extensions of current-gen systems, just with better hardware. The PS4 and Xbox family will live alongside their next-gen forebears for years to come (Sony, for example, will sell the PS4 until 2022). For all intents and purposes it's a new familial hierarchy--just think of the Xbox SX and PS5 as the new step-fathers who slowly gain custody of the kids (in this case, the PS4 and Xbox One games library).

Rumors are flying around the Smash Bros. community on forums regarding the final character to be revealed in the fighters pass.

Before jumping into these rumors, I must warn you that nothing in this article is officially confirmed by Nintendo, this is just what the current 'rumors' are. According to a 4Chan post by Leakguypossibly (shady name, I know), who claims a source has told him that there is going to be a bonus echo fighter for Joker, this fighter would be Kasumi from Persona 5. Leakguypossibly also says that Nintendo is planning on giving her a proper reveal and that she would be released after Persona 5 Royal releases in the west.

Moving onto Waluigi now. Brian David Gilbert recently made a video dedicated to asking Nintendo about creating a Waluigi video game. Funnily enough, Doug Bowser, now the Nintendo CEO, replied to the Twitter video with a clapping emoji and a purple heart. Smash fans are speculating that this approval towards Waluigi could lead to a new game for him or even an announcement from Nintendo about him being included in the fighters pass.

Back in October, I wrote an article about a gaming retailer listing Metro Redux for the Nintendo Switch before an official announcement was made. Now, we have an official rating for the game.

Metro Redux is a definitive edition collection of two Metro titles, Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light. Redux was originally released back in 2014, and based on this new rating from the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) board, it's soon going to be heading over to the Nintendo Switch.

The rating for the title clearly states Metro Redux will be 18+ (obviously) and that it will be releasing on the 31st of December, 2019. Since that day is now in the past, it seems that this "release date" was just an end of the year placeholder. Between there being an official rating for the game and the physical game cover of the Switch version being spotted, I believe that we are due for an announcement within the first quarter of 2020.

If you are a Nintendo Switch owner and you haven't dipped your toe into the great big Indie game pool then you are truly missing out on some fantastic titles.

If you are like me and don't like jumping into a random game without knowing whether or not its going to be worth your time playing it, then this might be the reason why you aren't giving some Indie titles a chance. That's a more than fair enough reason, so for your convenience Nintendo has compiled a list of the "Best-selling Indies of 2019".

Kicking off the list, Nintendo has got Cuphead, then the following titles are: Blasphemous, Downwell, Katana Zero, My Friend Pedro, Slay The Spire, War Groove, Untitled Goose Game, Castle Crashers, Terraria, Baba Is You, Unravel Two, Steam World Quest Hand of Gilgamech, Torchlight II and Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition. If you were thinking about getting an Indie title and giving it a shot, any of the previously mentioned games are worth your time playing.

If you are a fan of the Caped Crusader and also enjoy video games, you are no doubt after another great Batman title.

The above video released by Ruslan Gadzhiev showcases a real-time 3D game model of Christian Bale as The Batman from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight movie trilogy. The render was created used Unreal Engine 4, and by knowing that we can see that if there were to be a new Batman game, Batman would have about the same amount of quality as this render.

While it can't be said that developers will be able to 100% implement this level of quality in a new Batman game, this still gives us a rough estimation of what Unreal Engine 4 is capable of when it comes to Batman. In the entirety of this article, I have provided some high-quality screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

Recent leaks show the Xbox Series X crushing the PlayStation 5 in raw GPU power, at least insofar as relative devkit specs. But a less powerful console could give Sony a major advantage: A $399 price tag.

New reports show a clear discrepancy between next-gen console power. The leaks, which are based on devkit hardware, say the Xbox Series X sits at 12 TFLOP GPU clocked at a 1.7GHz frequency with a whopping 56 Navi Compute Units from AMD's new RDNA 2.0 architecture.

The PlayStation 5 conversely clocks in at 9.2 TFLOPs with only 36 Compute Units (the same as the PS4 Pro) at a 2GHz clock speed. With these numbers, the Xbox SX's GPU sports 33% more TFLOP performance and 55% more compute units. That's a sizable lead that should come with an equally sizable price tag.

Earlier in the year, Guild Wars developer ArenaNet prepared for job layoffs/restructuring, and now it seems the development studio is preparing to get back on track with a new title.

ArenaNet stepped into the game development sphere with the extremely popular MMORPG Guild Wars. Following up on that title, ArenaNet then developed a sequel, Guild Wars 2, and while that title kicked off on popularity, it's lack of end-game content caused players to leave and find their way back to other MMORPG's. As you can see, ArenaNet has always been a single game development studio, but since the layoffs earlier this year, we haven't heard much about what the studio is doing.

Now, according to a new job listing, ArenaNet is searching for a new art director that will be working on an "unannounced third-person fantasy action console title". This is extremely interesting, as this would mark the first time ArenaNet has moved towards developing a game for consoles rather than PC. The job listing also doesn't mention anything about the game being an MMO, which could mean that the studio is moving away from the Guild Wars series and starting something brand new. We will have to keep our eyes on this.

If you are a virtual reality gamer or just a gamer that pays attention to virtual reality titles, then you have no doubt heard of Beat Saber.

Beat Saber was renowned as the most popular virtual reality title with its extremely smooth movement and music-based system. The game got that popular that Oculus decided to pick them up. Now, a new VR title is on the block, and it's kicking up a storm in terms of revenue making and players.

The game is called Boneworks, it's developed and published by Stress Level Zero, and on December 11th, it released on the Steam Store. The title has since gone on to earn Steam "Best of 2019 Virtual Reality" which is a ranking awarded to the title that generates the most gross revenue for the entire year. Boneworks managed to pull in over 100,000 new VR gamers, equating to a staggering $3 million in revenue.

Sometimes a game doesn't have to be a massive open-world title with multiple endings, sometimes all it has to be is a goose.

Not too long ago, I wrote an article about why House House's Untitled Goose Game is one of the reasons you should love the internet. Without the internet, we would have never heard about this title, and honestly, what a shame that would be. It seems that over one million people were thinking a similar way and didn't want to miss out on the title as its sales have reached a point that has exceeded the developer's expectations.

According to Cabel, who worked on Untitled Goose Game as a publisher at Panic, Untitled Goose Game has surpassed the one million copies sold mark. Cabel took to his personal Twitter to thank everyone who purchased the game and hoped that they enjoyed their experience.