Gaming - Page 686

Nintendo's new refreshed Switch has a better screen, better battery life, and better thermals, making the original model not worth buying.

If you're in the market for a Switch, make sure you get the new 2019 model. It costs the same, looks the same, and comes in a red box, but it has some pretty nifty improvements over the base 2017 model. It's display is brighter and warmer, hinting at a panel revision like The Wall Street Journal reported, and it sports a beefier battery for up to 9 hours of play in Breath of the Wild. It also handles thermals much more efficiently, which indicates the new model sports a refreshed 16nm Tegra X1 214 chip revision.

YouTuber Kevin Kenson dissected the new Switch and discovered some interesting tidbits. Insofar as thermals, the new Switch runs up to 5 degrees cooler in handheld mode, and roughly 8 degrees cooler in the more demanding docked mode that unlocks the onboard Tegra processor for maximum performance.

Ubisoft says Splinter Cell isn't dead. Company CEO Yves Guillemot promises it'll come back, but when the time is right. Ubisoft's current landscape gives key clues on what that game (or games) could be like).

Right now Ubisoft cares about two things: digital and engagement. They go hand in hand. Online-driven digital games breed engagement, which in turn generates revenue from post-release content updates and microtransactions. Ubisoft's made a tremendous digital transformation and regularly rakes in billions every year as a result. Any new game will fold right into this plan, including a new Splinter Cell. As a result, Sam Fisher's next adventure could be quite different.

Arguably, Ubisoft doesn't need to bring Splinter Cell back. The Tom Clancy brand is huge, sure, but it's raking in cash hand-over-fist with The Division 2, Ghost Recon, and Rainbow Six: Siege, live games all (the latter of which is even getting spin-offs). Sam Fisher's singleplayer-driven stealth adventures don't have a place in Ubisoft's roadmap any more, so the series has to morph and change with the times. Sure Splinter Cell had PVP multiplayer as far back as 2004's Pandora Tomorrow, but that's not enough. It needs a strong PVE element to keep gamers playing.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is simply a masterpiece and one of the best games I have ever played. Its not only one of the best games I've played for its story and gameplay but also its music.

A new music overhaul mod has been released and instead of removing the games original soundtrack, the mod adds 16 brand new pieces of music to add to the games glory. According to the team who created the soundtracks, "We are currently working on adding more songs to the mod, the aim is to add a few songs every now and then, so the whole game gets this special, musical treatment".

Below you can find some snippet tracks for you to enjoy and if you are interested in adding this music overhaul pack to your game, check out this link here.

It looks like EA is about to announce or at least tease its new Need for Speed title, something we knew was coming but it seems EA is packing the hype train a little more in the last 24 hours.

The official Need for Speed website has been updated with a new countdown, something that ends don August 14. This is a week out from Gamescom 2019 which starts on August 20, and this year above all is a very special one for the Need for Speed franchise.

Need for Speed will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year, with the first game releasing all the way back in 1994. I remember, as I played hell out of it when it was released. It's actually crazy to think that it has been a 25-year franchise, but it has been a successful ride along the way and I'm excited to see where the franchise goes next.

A new interview with a CD Projekt employee has revealed some details regarding Cyberpunk 2077's storyline and what players can expect from it.

The interview was conducted by Polskie Radio with CD Projekt RED's, Pawel Sasko. Sasko is the mission designer for Cyberpunk 2077 and while he didn't reveal any gameplay details, he did reveal some aspects of the games storyline. According to Sasko, Cyberpunk 2077 will give players a movie-like experience and tell a story that is prodominately targetted at an adult audience as it contains adult themes.

Some of these themes will be what people experience in their everyday lives, and some of them will be difficult for some players to face as they will be quite touchy. Sasko says that Cyberpunk 2077 won't shy away from difficult subjects and instead give the player a different perspective to view these subjects from. Judging by what Sasko is saying, Cyberpunk 2077 will really make players question their morals as difficult themes and scenarios require difficult decisions.

If you happened to miss last weeks news, Tyler Blevins, or better known as Ninja left his home platform of Twitch to move to Microsoft's Mixer. Now, Twitch has gone and done him wrong in what seems to be a retaliation of his platform departure.

Following Ninja's transition to Microsoft's Mixer, Ninja has taken to his personal Twitter account to discuss what has recently happened regarding his departure. According to Ninja, "if you go to Twitch.tv/Ninja they advertise other channels, they don't do this for anyone else that's offline by the way, just me."

Ninja continues and says, "there are also other streamers who have signed with other platforms, who's stream and channels still remain the same. They don't promote other streams, they don't promote other popular channels, but they do on mine. I've been streaming for 8 years to build my brand and to build that channel, 14.5 million followers and they were still using my channel to promote other streamers. Well now, there was a porn account, who was number one being recommended on my channel and I have no say in any of this stuff."

Gamers expected Ubisoft to unveil or at least tease a next-gen Splinter Cell at E3 2019, but that show has come and gone and we had nothing about Sam Fisher's new adventure.

But during ChinaJoy, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot talked with Chinese site GamerSky where he said: "On Splinter Cell there will be some new type of experiments, but more on different devices. We are working a lot on the brand today to come back at one point. We can't say when because as you know it takes time, but we have to find which time is right to come back ".

I loved the original Splinter Cell games and would love to see Ubisoft unleash a new Sam Fisher story, but with next-gen graphics. Splinter Cell is known for its stealth gameplay with lighting and shadows playing a large part, I'd love to see a new take on Splinter Cell with some real-time ray tracing technology infused into it.

Amazon put up some placeholders for WB Games Montreal's new game, hinting at an imminent announcement.

After cancelling their ambitious Suicide Squad live game, WB Games Montreal is currently working on a Batman-related project. Details are scarce, but sources close to the matter say it's centered around the Dark Knight's son, Damian Wayne. But the focus of the game could've shifted since then. Back in 2018, the studio teased the project would borrow from The Court of Owls story arc from the 2011 graphic novels.

We've had no actual information for years now, but that could change quite soon. The now-deleted Amazon placeholder listings hint WB Montreal's game could be announced soon, possibly this month at Gamescom 2019 in Germany.

Next-gen games on Xbox 360? It could be possible thanks to Project xCloud.

Microsoft's new Project xCloud streaming service could enable next-gen gaming on old legacy hardware like the Xbox 360. The service uses the power of remote servers to beam games to devices like mobile phones regardless of their hardware limitations. It's a way of making gaming more accessible to gamers on-the-go or even at home. And since gamers can literally use their Xbox One hardware as a host server to stream games, the current-gen could beam games to last-gen. How bizarre.

Nothing's been confirmed just yet, and we don't know if it's possible--or more importantly, if Microsoft even cares about the X360 any more--but MS Studios head Matt Booty at least entertained the idea. In a recent interview with GameInformer, he talked about how the unique use-case underlines xCloud's core ethos.

Take-Two once again teases a huge roadmap of new IP, sequels, and franchises, strongly hinting GTA 6 is currently in development.

In its recent Fiscal Year Q1'20 earnings call, Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive teases its massive slate of new games. The pipeline is "bigger than ever," and Take-Two says it'll include sequels from its biggest franchises (ahem...Grand Theft Auto...ahem). But it's not all GTA 6 and Rockstar. There's a myriad of fresh projects in dev across its entire label of studios, including the new 2K project from ex-Call of Duty dev Michael Condrey, new titles from its Social Point mobile house, and innovative games from its new indie label Private Division, which is publishing Obsidian's new The Outer Worlds RPG.

In the call, company CFO Lainie Goldstein outlined strong growth indicators for FY2020 and beyond thanks to this new slate. "Looking ahead, we have the strongest development pipeline in our history, including sequels from our biggest franchises, as well as exciting new IP," she said.

Technically all Halo games are service games with expanded multiplayer (Halo 5 pushed the bar with REQ microtransactions). But Halo 6, aka Halo: Infinite, could push things even further by adding in a live campaign that continually unfolds over time.

Halo: Infinite is sounding more and more like a hybrid campaign that blends RPG progression with FPS action for a long-winded, ever-evolving experience. I recently predicted Infinite would have a GaaS-based campaign that's updated with new missions, chapters, and storylines across years. I posited that Infinite could be a platform instead of a game; it could be the beginning of a literal infinite rollout of Halo content. Everything about the Xbox business (which thrives from engagement and monetization) and how 343i describes the game makes this seem more and more likely.

Now there's even more evidence to support our theory. In a recent interview with GameInformer, Microsoft Studios boss Mat Booty seems to hint that Halo: Infinite will have some sort of expanded live-based gaming that lives outside of multiplayer.

Blizzard's been on a classic kick lately. First we got remasters of the original Warcraft and Starcraft games, and now they're doubling-down with World of Warcraft classic. But we shouldn't hold out hope for Diablo II remastered.

In its recent earnings call, Activision-Blizzard pledged to make more remasters of key franchises. It's a way of re-engaging players and making money with sales, and also baking in microtransaction hooks in older games. Company CEO Robert Kotick pretty much says more classic re-releases are on the way.

"At Activision we have seen great results from remastering some of these beloved games over the last couple of years. They are obviously having a big impact on our bottom line and a real impact there, but I'd say what's really important is that it's reaffirming the enduring nature of these franchises for us. We think there's a lot of IP in there the fans are going to want to experience again. So now what I'd say stay tuned for some future announcements."

Discord will soon roll out a new streaming feature, but it's not going to be huge like Twitch.

Discord's new Go Live feature is basically screen-sharing to a small group of random players, creating a more intimate and close-knit experience with strangers online. It won't deliver huge mass-audience streaming like Twitch or YouTube and is instead limited to just 10 viewers. Go Live can be used by anyone on a server, and numerous people can stream at once in a single voice channel. It's meant to deliver a kind of camaraderie to users across a server and even has huge game-changing potential.

This is basically a continuation to Discord's screen-sharing feature, which shows your friends' screens while in-game and it could revolutionize interactivity. Go Live won't require users to be friends with the viewers, though. Gamers could share tips on how to take on a specific boss with real-time footage, all complimented by live voice chatting to boot. Using Go Live in tandem with a multiplayer game would basically deliver a new level of tutorials to Discord servers.

Activision has big plans for Modern Warfare's post-launch content pipeline.

Like any game released from Activision-Blizzard, the new Modern Warfare reboot will expand greatly long after its initial October release. In fact, Modern Warfare will have the most content of any Call of Duty game--a bold statement made in Activision's latest Q2'20 earnings call. That means roadmaps, live services, new modes, maps, weapons, and a timed cadence of content--all monetized in some way.

"We have a number of surprises in store after that including the largest post-launch content pipeline in franchise history," Activision COO Coddy Johnson said in the call.

ESPN has decided to delay its broadcast of the Apex Legends EXP Invitational tournament, something that has now been confirmed by Polygon, in the wake of the recent mass shootings in the US.

ESPN explained in an email that it sent out to affiliate networks: "Out of respect for the victims and all those impacted by the recent shootings, ABC will no longer air 'EXP Invitational APEX Legends at X Games' on Sunday"

The broadcast of the Apex Legends EXP Invitational tournament will now take place on October 6 at 5PM on ESPN 2, with some re-runs taking place on both October 15 and October 27. The original broadcast wasn't even of the match live, but rather the highlights from the tournament.

Activision-Blizzard might be dialing back its new IP endeavors to focus more on established franchises like Call of Duty, Overwatch, Warcraft, Diablo and Hearthstone.

Like any other games-maker, joint publisher Activision-Blizzard is indeed working on new IPs. But these new games and franchises won't come at the cost of existing billion-dollar earners like Call of Duty or Overwatch. The company's recent decision to double-down on existing games is part of its new restructuring plan, which sees tremendous investment into live services and new content to re-engage audiences. The publisher's current breadwinners might eventually pass the torch to the new IPs, but don't expect them to overshadow titans like Activision's huge shooter series.

Read Also: Making new games is only 1/4th of Activision's future plans

No Man's Sky will soon let you tame--and milk--alien creatures for resources. Yes, really.

No Man's Sky Beyond is the seventh and biggest update in the game's history. It's a huge undertaking that adds full VR support on consoles and PC, a new social online infrastructure for multiplayer action, and a bunch of crafting content. And it also lets you milk aliens that you capture and tame. I mean...No Man's Sky was always weird, but this is pretty bizarre even for the space sim.

In a recent interview with IGN, Hello Games' Sean Murray detailed what Beyond has in store, confirming the game is taking on a more interstellar Stardew Valley- and Minecraft-like approach. Not only can we milk aliens, but we can farm them in makeshift hatcheries at our bases. That goes alongside farming plants and resources, too.

Gaming's biggest publishers will disclose lootbox odds by 2020, the Entertainment Software Association confirms.

Photo: AlexCraita

The war on lootboxes is heating up. Government bodies across the world are scrutinizing the billion-dollar microtransaction market, and some U.S. politicians are calling for a ban. Rather than be regulated by Washington, the industry is starting to regulate itself. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony will soon require all publishers and developers to disclose lootbox odds for games sold on Xbox LIVE, PlayStation Network, and the eShop.

Six years on from launch, GTA Online continues raking in consistent revenues for Take-Two Interactive, and NBA 2K19 is now the publisher's best-selling sports game.

Take-Two Interactive just reported a strong start to its Fiscal Year 2020 timeline, kicking off Q1'2020 with growth in monetization, net revenues, and sales. GTA Online was a big driver for Q1 thanks to its new Diamond Casino update, which saw record player engagement to date, and the huge continued success of NBA 2K19. Digital was the leading force in Take-Two's Q1 performance, growing a massive 51% YoY to $428 million. Digital made up almost 80% of the company's total net revenues.

In the period from April 1 - June 30, 2019, Take-Two made $541 million in net revenues, up 40% year-over-year. Net bookings, or net sales, sits at $422 million, up a huge 46.5% YoY. Operating income is up an astronomical 809% from last year primarily due to Red Dead Redemption 2's heavy investment spend in 2019.

A new Call of Duty game will still release every year, Activision asserts.

Every year gamers can expect the same things: new FIFA, NBA 2K, Madden, and Call of Duty games to name a few. That won't change any time soon. Despite the high cost of rolling out huge sprawling FPS games every year, Activision shows no signs of slowing Call of Duty's annual release cadence. In fact, they're doubling-down on key franchises like Call of Duty, accelerating development tools, worker headcount, and robust live service roadmaps. Activision knows CoD is a cash crop and is planting lots of seeds.

In its recent Fiscal Year Q2'2019 earnings call, Activision strongly hinted that Call of Duty won't slow down after the new Modern Warfare reboot. We shouldn't see Call of Duty take a year off or skip 2020 (Black Ops 5 is set for 2020, reports say).