Gaming - Page 690

Nintendo has now officially revealed their Gamescom 2019 lineup, fans can expect numerous popular titles to be showcased at the event.

The announcement has been found on the official Nintendo UK website and reveals that Nintendo will be showcasing several already-announced titles. These titles include: Luigi's Mansion 3, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, ASTRAL CHAIN, DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Editon, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and The Witcher III: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition.

The announcement also says that for anyone visiting the Nintendo booth at the event will be able to go hands-on with Luigi's Mansion 3, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Pokemon Sword & Pokemon Shield, DAEMON X MACHINA, DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition and The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. Nintendo will also be hosting a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Gamescom 2019 Invitational on Thursday, August 22nd. Winners of this event will be flown over to the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate World Challenge Cup held at the Nintendo Live event in Kyoto. This event will be livestreamed for anyone who cannot attend it locally.

Sony really wants all PS4 gamers to join the competitive gaming scene with their recently announced PS4 Tournaments: Challenger Series.

The PS4 Tournaments: Challenger Series invites all PS4 gamers to participate in some extremely competitive online gaming, which offer not only rewards but cash prizes as well. The tournaments will revolve around select games, starting off first with Mortal Kombat 11 and it will run over the duration of a couple of weeks.

Each of the tournaments will be broken up into stages, and players will have to win three out of four matches to advance to the next stage. Mortal Kombat 11 will be first title to get a free-to-join tournament, after that FIFA 20 will take its place and then Battlefield V and Warface. More titles will be follow after these tournaments have been played out. It should be noted that PS Plus will be required for most tournaments, as well as the prizes for winners of these tournaments haven't been disclosed as of yet.

I'm going to say something out aloud that I didn't think I'd be saying in 2019: the new Call of Duty game looks really kick ass, you guys. Activision and Infinity Ward have released the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's multiplayer trailer, check it out:

The developer teased its exciting new Ground War multiplayer mode, which will see 100 players duking it out for the win. There are new mechanics here at play, with the most-hyped part for me definitely being that you can play most maps at night time. I seriously can't wait for that.

There will also be 2v2, 6v6, 10v10, and 20v20 battles that will be in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, alongside the new 50v50 mode 'Ground War'. There was also a new COD: Modern Warfare multiplayer livestream premiere, check that out below:

The largest streamer in the world has just changed platforms, with Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins leaving Twitch and streaming exclusively with Microsoft Mixer, effective immediately.

There's not much known on the move by Ninja in terms of how much Microsoft paid him, whether there will be a timed exclusive to Mixer for Ninja, but the streamer himself has said "It's the same me, just a different platform". Ninja exploded onto the scene alongside Fortnite, with Microsoft securing Ninja it shows the Xbox creator is getting much more serious about streaming, much quicker.

Ninja will be used in different ways by Microsoft, as he won't just be streaming on Mixer as he will be going to game events throughout 2019 and into 2020 to support Mixer. So in a way, Ninja just became (one of) the face(s) of Mixer, and Microsoft just slammed its foot firmly onto the ground of the streaming world leading into the launch of its next-gen Xbox Scarlett console in 2020.

Remedy has really unleashed the hype train for its upcoming g ame Control, first with a slick story trailer that feels so influenced by shows like Fringe and The X-Files, but now we have a new gameplay trailer:

The 8-minute gameplay trailer is courtesy of IGN, and is shown in 4K 60FPS. It definitely irks me that it's played on a console controller, and I can't help but feel like that the entire game is like this. There are some annnoying gameplay traits here (reloading takes ages, the main character grunts every time she uses her powers which I can see both of which annoying me after a while).

Control is definitely shaping up to be a great showcase of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX graphics cards thanks to its full array of real-time ray tracing effects. I definitely need to get the game into my hands to see if the story -- and especially the Fringe/X-Files style conspiracy story is worth it.

EA's live services just won't stop growing despite a stale annualized release cadence.

EA loves live services and it's something the company does best. The publisher routinely earns billions every year from online games with heavy engagement and microtransactions.

In its recent FY Q1'2020 earnings report, EA earned $504 million from live services, up 12% from last year. It's the third straight year where Q1 live services have risen and utterly dominated digital earnings. Live services, which include subscriptions, microtransactions, and DLC, made up 67.8% of the quarter's total $743 in net bookings. Apex Legends and FIFA 19 were the main breadwinners, and EA plans to support Apex for the next 10 years.

EA has teased that Need For Speed fans will have to tune into Gamescome 2019 to get the reveal of their brand new Need For Speed title.

According to an announcement by EA CEO, Andrew Wilson at the most recent earnings call for the company, EA are ready to unveil the next installment in the Need For Speed franchise. While a name is currently unknown at the moment, Wilson says that the studio is ready to "take the wraps off our new Need for Speed game heading into Gamescom in a few weeks."

A specific time has not been set by EA so the new Need For Speed title could be revealed at the Gamescom: Opening Night Live event on August 19th, or if EA holds their own press conference. At the moment we don't know, but regardless its great to hear that EA has not given up on the Need For Speed series and is ready to unveil something that is hopefully a game-changer in the racing game market.

EA has confirmed that there is a new in-game event heading over to Apex Legends that will release before the game reaches its Season 3 mark.

The news comes from Electronic Arts' latest earnings call where the company revealed that Apex Legends: Season 2 has performed much better than expected and that developers Respawn will soon be shaking things up a bit in a new in-game event. According EA CEO Andrew Wilson, Respawn will "bring new content and deliver one of the most fan-requested features."

The details of the event were not disclosed, but we do have a time frame to expect it to go live. Wilson said that Apex players can expect the in-game event to hit the servers "in the next few weeks". EA also talked about Season 3 for Apex Legends, saying that Season 3 is "shaping up to be even bigger" than Season 2. Since the Season 2 battle pass ends this September, we can assume that is when Season 3 will begin and the flurry of content updates will be dropped. Apex Legends is currently available for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Today Gearbox Software, the developers behind the Borderlands franchise, have announced that their newest title Borderlands 3 has officially gone gold.

Going 'gold' development wise means that the title is near ready for launch, meaning that all development for Borderlands 3 is almost complete. The news has come from the official Gearbox Twitter account, where they announced that today marks the day that Borderlands 3 "has gone GOLD!"

The developers behind the title would be just smoothing out all of Borderlands 3's rough edges, fixing bugs, small glitches and everything that would impede a players experience. All main development for the title has now been finished. If you happened to miss the character introduction of 'Zane' check that out here. Borderlands 3 will be released on September 13th on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Nintendo has released the newest version of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, version 4.0.0 is now currently live so lets go through the official patch notes and see what has changed.

Firstly, there has been numerous changes to a tonne of different characters in the game. While this might freak you out as your main character could have been tampered with, I can tell you that there isn't that many 'huge' changes, and is more so just fixes for characters. Balancing has concentrated on the following characters: Mewtwo, Corrin, Pokemon Trainer (Ivysaur, Charizard), Pit, Lucas, Ridley and Isabelle.

There is many more changes to some other cherry picked characters, so please feel free to check out the official patch notes here on the Nintendo website. If you don't want to visit the website, I have provided a screenshot of the official patch notes in the entirety of this article. If you didn't know, Nintendo didn't just balance characters in version 4.0.0 they also added the newest DLC character 'The Hero'. More on that here. If you want to compare this patch to the previous one, check out this article here.

Nintendo has just released the next DLC character to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, introducing 'The Hero' in the new version 4.0.0 update that has released.

Nintendo conducted their livestream reveal a couple of days ago about their newest DLC character to join the fight in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, 'The Hero'. The gameplay showcase was quite shocking as the character seemed to have everything that a Super Smash Bros. fighter needs: a good recovery, hard hitting attacks, nice range attacks, mobility, sweet sword arcs, lowish frame-data and speed. On top of all of that 'The Hero' has a chance of critically striking his opponent with an attack, this strike causes a massive impact of damage and is random.

While I won't be breaking down the moves of the fighter (a full video can be found above of that), many Smash Bros. players have taken to social media's to express their concern that the newest DLC character is much to strong and should be banned from tournaments. Keep in mind the character has been out for just 24 hours, is that truly enough time to determine whether a character is too strong? Another question that should be raised is that other characters that have RNG (random number generator) abilities - such as Game & Watch's possible one shot 9 - should these characters be banned as well?

We are only around a year away from what will arguably be the most exciting time for gamers, ever -- the release of next-gen consoles and a bunch of next-gen games. EA is ready for it all.

In its Q1 2020 financial results earnings calls with investorts, EA talked about its plans for next-gen consoles and next-gen games. Blake Jorgensen, Chief Financial Officer at EA said: "We're working hard on moving, building games for next year on Gen 5. I think it's obvious. I think everybody in the industry is doing that".

He continued: "As has happened in the past, not all games come out on Gen 5 immediately. And obviously, with games like Madden, you'd probably bring the Gen 5 game out when the Gen 5 console ships, not when Madden itself ships, but we'll be ready on Gen 5. We're very excited about it and we've been working on it for some time".

Lenovo looks like it could be the first with a 5G-powered laptop with the latest rumor from 91mobiles teasing a Lenovo rep that wanted to stay anonymous, that 5G laptops are coming later this year.

The source said that the company is working on multiple 5G-ready products for a big launch in Q4 2019, just in time for another big reveal by Qualcomm at its annual Snapdragon Tech Summit. We should expect the next big chip from Qualcomm that will succeed the Snapdragon 855 and Snapdragon 855+ and what should resemble a proper line up of 5G devices, of which Lenovo will have plenty of.

Keep in mind that 5G isn't an instant standard, so don't go expecting these things to drop into the market and be dominant. But slowly over time, 5G will make its way into the mainstream like every other big push with 3G, 4G, 4G LTE, and so on.

Mavericks: Proving Grounds will never get to prove itself, with the game cancelled in the aftermath of its UK-based developer Automaton Games going out of business.

The game was meant to show off the abilities and power of the new cloud tech called SpatialOS, which was meant to see the game running on multiple dedicated servers, all at once. But nope, we won't see that now -- nor will we see the larger 1000-player MMO shooter 'Project X' in a single world. Gone.

The official Automaton Games website has a post, which reads:

At a recent press event in Japan, Sony's corporate executives warn that console prices will rise to offset incoming trade tariffs.

A bit ago I predicted the PlayStation 5 could end up being pretty expensive. It's specs alone speak of a premium system. The new PlayStation will have an AMD SoC with next-gen Navi GPU and Zen 2 CPU architectures for 4K gaming, 120Hz playback, and 8K output. Sony says it'll target enthusiast gamers, and that it won't replace the existing PS4 lineup.

The U.S.-China trade war could inflate prices even more. Sony previously delivered a joint letter with Nintendo and Microsoft who all warned the tariffs would massively disrupt the complex supply lines of the games industry. As a result, the Big Three said, games console hardware would likely rise in price.

Thanks to the mega-popular Apex Legends, EA sure is getting its money's worth with Respawn. The publisher is returning the favor in kind by giving the team as many resources as they need--including help from its varied stable of studios.

Shortly after being acquired by EA for $315 million, Respawn launched its titanic battle royale sensation Apex Legends. The Titanfall spin-off is so potent that it's now one of EA's core franchises. The company says Apex has anywhere from 8-10 million players every month and its engagement levels are off the charts. It's so important to EA that the publisher plans to invest in Apex Legends for the next 10 years. But there's just one issue here: how can Respawn keep the content flowing? With the assistance of a myriad of other studios of course.

In a recent first quarter FY2020 earnings call, EA confirmed that Respawn has three teams dedicated to separate projects. Respawn isn't one entity developing multiple games at once, but instead is segregated off into different groups focused on one set game. Right now Respawn has three teams: one working on Apex Legends, one developing Jedi: Fallen Order, and the other is making "some new things" (the new AAA VR game).

EA's big breadwinners are annualized live service games with lots of time- and money-spending hooks. Series like Madden, FIFA, The Sims, and even Battlefield are all billion-dollar earners designed to keep you playing (and paying) over long periods of time. But that's not all EA is about, and the company pledges to return to older franchises in the future.

EA might have some surprises in store for this fiscal year, namely a revival of dormant franchises like Skate, Command and Conquer (that terrible mobile game doesn't count), and even a fourth Mass Effect game (remember, BioWare is working on it). In a recent Fiscal Year Q1'2020 earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson affirmed the company has a diversified games pipeline that isn't just online-based sports or action games. After all, Jedi: Fallen Order is a purely singleplayer-only Star Wars game, offering a sharp contrast to the lootbox furor of Battlefront II.

"Our pipeline is full of innovative new projects for our current franchises, new IP and plans to revisit some of our fan favorite brands as we continually work to bring more high-quality games to our players across a growing number of platforms and devices," Wilson said in the call.

EA plans to mine Respawn's free-to-play battle royale sensation for all it's worth, and wants to support the game for the next decade or so.

In its recent FY Q1'2020 earnings call, key EA executives outlined the future of the company's focus. Live services are massively important (they made EA $504 million in the quarter, and $2.46 billion in the last 12 months) so games like Apex Legends are huge opportunities for long-term monetization. It's all about building engagement, and that means roadmaps. Lots of roadmaps with lots of updates and new content. Apex is already set up for recurring revenues with its huge battle royale focus and innovative FPS mechanics, and EA will use these features as a vehicle for microtransactions. It's the EA way, after all.

But how long will EA carry Apex Legends? Season 2 was somewhat soft in reception. There's some big things in the pipeline for season 3, EA says, and this precedent could reinvigorate the shooter now and into the future. According to EA Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen, the company is invested into Apex Legends for the long haul. EA is treating the popular Titanfall spin-off kind of like a yearly title, but instead of selling a retail copy every year, they'll roll out a smorgasbord of updates and content.

While watching a recent Doom Eternal gameplay demo from Quakecon, I noticed two major things: the sequel is kind of like an RPG, and id Software is really pushing the engagement hook.

Doom Eternal is shaping up to be a grindy experience that's meant to be played for a long, long while. Eternal sports runes, upgrades and perks, and creative director Hugo Martin confirms we'll be farming enemies quite a bit in the game. The levels are open-ended sort of like an RPG with lots of secrets to uncover, and the enemies take some careful planning an execution to kill. Everything's designed to last longer than it normally would in a shooter. Sure it's linear and story-based, but there's lots of things to do along the way.

In a way Doom Eternal is a kind of FPS hybrid that fits perfectly into Bethesda's recent focus on long-winded experiences capitalizing on engagement. In fact, engagement was a huge keyword in the demo. Both Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin tossed it around quite a bit in the footage.

Gearbox Software has released a new character trailer video for Zane, an extremely seasoned espionage trained solider who is also a semi-retired corporate hitman.

Right off the bat we discover that Zane is Irish, and has had plenty experience with numerous different occupations in his time. One thing has stayed consistent through all of that though - Zane has been alone for most of his life. Halfway through the trailer we see Zane use one of his gadgets to block a bunch of bullets from some advancing enemies.

Then at the end we see him chatting to a clone of himself which can be assumed will be used to deceive enemies in combat. Gearbox will be releasing more of these character trailer videos to get that hype train chugging along towards the September release. Borderlands 3 will be releasing on Xbox One, PS4 and PC on September 13th. More information on Zane can be found here.