Gaming - Page 685

PC Building Simulator has made its way over to consoles, so now console gamers can enjoy building their balls to the wall PC with no costs whatsoever.

Consoles gamers can now run their own PC workshop and have fun building all different kind of PC's. Users can customize their PC to their hearts desire, you can change case, GPU, CPU, cooling, RAM, storage, monitors and even overclock your whole rig if you want.

PC Building Simulator isn't just a program to mess around in either, users can legitimately use this program to build the PC they are looking at buying and acquire a great visualization of how it will look and run. PC Building Simulator is now available on the Xbox One, PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Secretlab has just secured a huge injection of funding from Temasek subsidiary Heliconia Capital Management, with the gaming chair company saying this is the first external investor for Secretlab.

Heliconia has invested in other tech companies including Razer, with its new stake in Secretlab described as a "small minority stake" that sees Secretlab valued at between S$200-$300 million, which works out to $144-$216 million -- not a small sum at all, for a gaming chair company that is very significant.

It goes to show that all of the hard work Secretlab has put into its gaming c hairs over the years is paying off, not just from its consumers and fans, but from investment firms seeing the future being bright for Secretlab.

We knew it was coming and we should have the official reveal today, but it looks like the new Need for Speed has been leaked and it will be called Need for Speed: Heat.

Need for Speed: Heat will reportedly be a new open-world game with a darker tone, and a serious story. It actually sounds kinda cool, with an +18 game showing the serious tone, while the "arcade gameplay as always, just brake to drift" shows that it'll take driving in the easier arcade-style mode.

The graphics will be "similar to NFS 2015" which doesn't inspire much, there will be no off-road gameplay, but one of the cool features in Need for Speed: Heat sounds like the Police Escape game mode. Police Escape mode is meant to be 'classic Need for Speed' mode with "cops will be back in the open world" with "helicopters and everything".

It looks like we're to expect L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files to release on the PlayStation VR headset soon, with a new listing on the European games rating board, PEGI. L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files received an 18 rating.

With this news we should expect an announcement soon, and with Gamescom right around the corner that announcement might come sooner rather than later.

A refresher on what L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files is: "Featuring seven cases rebuilt specifically for virtual reality, L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files adds new layers of immersion and realism to Rockstar Games' atmospheric crime thriller as you solve select cases from the blockbuster original game, spanning mysteries from the Detective desks of Traffic, Arson, Homicide, and more".

Sony has already talked about its next-gen PlayStation console, but we don't know when it will be officially detailed and officially called the PlayStation 5. I'm expecting it later this year, but according to new leaks the PS5 reveal will take place on February 12, 2020.

The leak is from 4chan so prepare your salt shaker, with the post saying they had information from a "former senior marketing manager" in the PlayStation division. The post continues to say that the final planning is happening for the PlayStation Meeting 2020 event, which is currently schedule for February 12, 2020.

Sony will reportedly unveil the next-generation PlayStation 5 console on February 12, 2020 at this event, alongside the big push of PlayStation exclusives and sure fire massive hits in The Last of Us 2 and Ghost of Tsushima. Both of these games are going to be some of the best-selling games on PlayStation next year, so it makes sense for Sony to market these games heavily.

First lootboxes, and now Loot Crates could likewise follow the way of the dinosaur.

Real-life surprise mechanics company Loot Crate just filed for Chapter 11 bankrupty protection. The move comes after years of financial woes that led to warehouse operations closing down, and the axing of over 100 employees. Loot Crate currently wants to sell the company to the highest bidder to pay its debts, but similar to Starbreeze Studios, it's received a cash injection to help keep it alive until the sale goes through.

Investor Money Chest put up $10 million to keep Loot Crate operational until it liquidates its assets. The company says workers will still continue being paid in this period. Geek boxes will still be shipped out as the company functions like normal, all with a Sword of Damocles above their heads. "Daily operations will continue as usual, unique and exciting fan items will be purchased, crates will be shipped, and all aspects of the business will go on as before the Chapter 11 filing. Our employees will continue to be paid as usual during this transaction," said Loot Crate's CEO Chris Davis.

In a rare and candid blog post, Destiny director Luke Smith talks about microtransactions and their place in the Destiny landscape.

I still remember when cosmetic microtransactions came to Destiny. I hoped it'd never happen, but I guess it was inevitable under Activision's leadership. I mean hell, all major online games have them nowadays. But now that Bungie is independent and no longer under Activision's thrall, the studio has no plans to take them out entirely. That doesn't mean they won't change, however.

But how do microtransactions actually affect Destiny 2? Do they even need to be there? Well, yes and no--I guess sort of is the right answer. According to Smith, microtransactions are supplementary instead of primary. Expansions are still the main drivers for funding the biggest content drops like Shadowkeep, seasons, and big transformative shifts like the ones coming with the new spooky Moon-based adventure. But without the steady river of mTX cash, Bungie might not have nifty little extras like the Zero Hour mission and the minutiae of tweaks that go into the game.

Ever the king of monetization, Activision reigns by pulling in $800 million from microtransactions, subscriptions and DLC last quarter.

Activision's three segments--King, Blizzard, and Activision proper--all make for a lucrative money-printing digital powerhouse. Thanks to its immensely replayable online games, the company routinely earns more cash from monetization in one quarter than some publishers earn all year. Its most recent Q2'19 period was no different, and Activision pulled in $800 million from live services from April - June. This represents 66% of the total $1.21 billion in net bookings for the period.

In lieu of big frontline releases, Candy Crush developer King made the lion's share of microtransaction earnings with its free-to-play mobile game. But other segments didn't suffer--far from it. Activision pulled in $268 million in net revenues, driven by Call of Duty Black Ops 4 and Crash Team Racing, and Blizzard is in second place with $384 million, driven by continued monetization and sales across its fleet of multiplayer titles (World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Overwatch, Hearthstone, etc).

New FCC filings confirm Nintendo is making SNES controllers for the Switch, strongly indicating classic SNES games will follow.

Thanks to new FCC filings, Nintendo's plans to bring SNES retro gaming to the Nintendo Switch have been outed. The filings clearly show a wireless SNES controller that likely slides onto the handheld-console hybrid's rail system. Right now only NES games are playable on the Switch, offered for free as part of the $20 Switch Online service. Nintendo previously released special NES controllers for the Switch specifically designed to play these original classics.

Now Nintendo is doing the same thing for the SNES generation. The idea is to use the Switch Online as the paygate for these classic games rather than selling them individually--recurring revenues vs one-off sales--and we should expect to pay extra for SNES games. Nintendo also sells extremely limited controller hardware to compliment the software re-monetization. I'm thinking Nintendo will offer a Switch Online+ subscription for, say, $5-10 more a year that includes SNES games.

Microsoft could be targeting actual 4K 60FPS for games on Project Scarlett.

Microsoft's new Project Scarlett console supposedly "eats monsters for breakfast." It'll feature a Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU for next-gen performance, and is four times as powerful as the Xbox One X, hinting at roughly 24TFLOPs of raw power. But how far can it push games? Microsoft might be targeting 4K 60FPS in every Scarlett-optimized game, using the heavily customized AMD SoC and clever tricks to pull it off.

In a recent interview with Gamespot, Xbox boss Phil Spencer discussed Scarlett's design points. "I think the area that we really want to focus on next generation is frame rate and playability of the games. Ensuring that the games load incredibly fast, ensuring that the game is running at the highest frame rate possible. ...People love 60 frames-per-second games, so getting games to run at 4K60 I think will be a real design goal for us."

PC players who are waiting to get their hands-on Borderlands 3 will have to wait just that little bit longer as the game won't have support for pre-loading.

According to Tim Sweeny, Epic Games' CEO, Borderlands 3 will not have support for pre-loading. For those that don't know, pre-loading is when players can download the game before it officially releases so when the game does release they can jump straight into the action as soon as possible.

This news has been confirmed via a fans question to Sweeny on Twitter, Sweeny replied saying "I'm sorry, we won't have support for preloading in the Borderlands release timeframe." When asked why this is the case for Borderlands 3, Sweeny said that since Borderlands 3 is a timed Epic Games Store exclusive, the Epic Games Stores infrastructure isn't "It's Complicated. We've released support for file preloading which is sufficient for some games, but we aren't certain it's up to the demands of a blockbuster like Borderlands."

THQ Nordic has revealed two collectors editions that Destroy All Humans! players will be able to pick up when the game releases. Prepare your wallet because it isn't cheap...

Above we have the Destroy All Humans! - Crypto-137 Edition, which contains a real-life backpack of the games protagonist Crypto, a 60cm statue of Crypto, a keychain, six lithographs, an eye-popping anti-stress squeeze toy, a large "premium" box and in-game skins for Crypto. This bundle is priced at a staggering $400.

If the above bundle is out of your price range, THQ Nordic has provided a second option that doesn't cost as much. This edition is called the DNA Collectors Edition and will retail for $150. The contents of this pack include; a 23cm Cypto'N'Cow figurine, a keychain, six lithographs, eye-popping stress toy, a different "premium" box, the in-game Crypto skins, and of course, the playable game. These collectors editions will be available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC users and if you are interested in purchasing one head on over to the THQ Nordic website here.

Minecraft will be staying rugged and pixelated after a new announcement on the official website detailing that the game will not be receiving its 'Super Duper Graphics Pack'.

Back at E3 in 2017, Minecraft developers Mojang announced the Super Duper Graphics Pack which was basically a massive graphics overhaul for the entirety of Minecraft. The graphics update has since been in development for the past two years and has provided extremely challenging for the developers, as numerous delays have had to go underway.

Now, an announcement has been posted via the Minecraft website, saying that the "Super Duper was an ambitious initiative that brought a new look to Minecraft but, unfortunately, the pack proved too technically demanding to implement as planned." This decision was due to the pack not performing as desired across a range of devices and "For this reason, we're stopping development on the pack, and looking into other ways for you to experience Minecraft with a new look."

Creative Assembly are rumored to be stepping onto the shores of the Trojan War as a filled trademark has been found revealing what is to be believed as the next Total War Saga game.

The filing has been found on UK's Intellectual Property Office website and showcases what is assumed to be the title of the next game "Total War Saga: Troy". Before we dive into how awesome of an era this is, I firstly must say that since no official announcement has come out of Creative Assembly regarding "Troy", that is this purely a rumor at this stage.

If Creative Assembly do choose to build a game around the Bronze Age and more specifically the Trojan War, this could be one of the best Total War Saga games ever made due to how rich this era in time is with history. For those that don't know, the Trojan War is predominantly based off two books - The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer. It is still debated how accurate Homers poems are to what actually happened in real-life, but regardless of specifics, this era in time is filled with amazing legends, characters, locations and more.

16-year-old Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf would be riding a huge high right now after won a huge $3 million by winning the Fortnite World Cup, and last night had his home "swatted".

Kyle was live streaming Fortnite at the time and mid-match his Dad comes to his door and says that armed police were at the door, looking for him. Kyle leaves the stream leaving his team mates questioning where he went, but after 10 minutes he returns.

Once he returns, Kyle said: "They come in with guns, bro. They literally pulled up, holy shit". Kyle streams daily to his audience of over 640,000 followers, so being swatted at this level is kinda crazy.

Gears 5 has just gone gold, with Microsoft and The Coalition announcing the news ahead of Gamescom 2019 next week, with Gears 5 to be detailed on August 19.

The developer has teased that it will show off the new Horde Mode in Gears 5, as well as a deeper glimpse into the Gears 5 campaign. The Coalition boss, Rod Fergusson, said: "From all of us at The Coalition, we couldn't be more excited to share Gears 5 with the world. I want thank the team here who has worked so hard for our fans, and we all hope you are all as excited as we are to play Gears 5".

He continued: "This is furthest we have ever taken the franchise, living our studio mantra of 'if you want to go far go together'."

Control is right around the corner with its release on August 27, with the pre-load for the game now kicking off on the Xbox One for those who pre-ordered the game.

Now that the pre-load has started we're finding out about the download size of Control, at least on the Xbox One, which is chiming in at 35GB. We don't know the download sizes for the PC or PS4 versions just yet.

I'm curious on the PC version of Control and its size since it will have loads of RTX features included with it, and how much they'll add to the download size. It shouldn't be too much bigger, but it'll be the most loaded RTX game released so far which has piqued my interest.

PUBG Mobile is dominating monthly player spending in battle royale games, with a gigantic spike that started in March and hasn't stopped rising. Fortnite is down in that same time, and doesn't even come close to the numbers from PUBG Mobile.

The big difference here for PUBG Mobile is when it reached China two months ago when it was released as Game for Peace, with monthly player spending going from just over $60 million in April to over $160 million in July. Fortnite on the other hand slipped under $40 million per month.

So when people laugh at these gaming phones like the Razer Phone II and ASUS ROG Phone II... tell them just how huge mobile gaming is and how much money is involved. We're looking at over $2 billion in monthly revenue from just three battle royale games on mobile devices, in a single year. This is just three games out of the sea of mobile games, but they push the boundaries of mobile hardware.

Tim Willits, one of the original pillars of id Software, has traded in his BFG to work on smaller-scale projects at Saber Interactive.

After 24 years of ripping and tearing, Tim Willits is ready for a change. The industry vet today announced his new position as chief creative officer at Saber Interactive, which pretty much gives him free reign in guiding the World War Z developer's entire slate of games. Willits will not only help shape and form current games, but also mold new IPs for the games-maker.

"I am excited to announce that on August 1st I became the Chief Creative Officer of Saber Interactive. I will be leading the creative vision of our five studios around the world," Willits said on Twitter.

Twitch just messed up so bad that thousands of people--including streamers--are calling for change. Now streaming giant CEO Emmett Shear tries to explain what went wrong.

Twitch is embroiled in a hot fiasco right now. Here's the lowdown: Ninja, the world's most popular streamer and Fortnite guru, recently left Twitch for an exclusive deal on Microsoft's streaming platform, Mixer. Technically his channel was dead and should've been left offline. But since Ninja's channel is so huge, Twitch decided to use it as a big springboard platform to recommend other channels rather than leaving it dormant. One of these channels was for porn. Ninja and his fans exposed it and outrage against Twitch's mishandled regulation exploded on the internet, and the hashtag #TwitchOverParty started trending.

So what happened? According to Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, showing streams on Ninja's offline channel was an experiment. Shear admits fault, but doesn't explicitly underline why Ninja's channel was chosen--but it's not hard to guess. "Our community comes to Twitch looking for live content. To help ensure they find great, live channels we've been experimenting with showing recommended content across Twitch, including on streamer's pages that are offline," Shear said in a statement on Twitter.