Gaming - Page 717

Blizzard is excited about bringing more games to the Switch and now sees the transforming hybrid handheld-console as a viable platform.

The Nintendo Switch is a huge win for many publishers. It's a new platform that's become a re-release machine in its own right, offering yesteryear games at full $59.99 prices for a new audience. Diablo III was one such game, and thanks to its strong sales and success with the Eternal Collection on the Switch, Blizzard should port more of its big hits onto the system.

In a recent interview with VentureBeat, Blizzard President J. Allen Brack affirms the company sees the Switch as a unique opportunity for ports and games. "It's not ridiculous [to think we'd make more Switch games]. We think of it as another platform. It has some unique properties that the Xbox and Sony platforms don't have. Thinking about what games make sense for that type of console is something we'll never stop doing."

Capcom is doing extremely well right now: sales, operating income, and total profits are all at record yearly highs.

Capcom just reported stellar results for its FY2018 period, showing strong growth across its multi-faceted games business. Dedicated game sales were to a new three-year high of 25.3 million units, nearly half of which were from Monster Hunter World's titanic 12 million sales. Other games like the Resident Evil 2 REmake sold 4 million units, and Devil May Cry 5 pushed 2 million copies.

Thanks to Capcom's forward-thinking strategy that folds digital, online monetization, DLC and physical full games sales together in a cohesive plan, the company managed to push its earnings to new record levels. Thanks to rapid game sales, Capcom made an impressive 100.03 billion yen ($901.99 million) in net sales during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019. Operating income was up a strong 13.1% YoY to 18.14 billion yen ($163.6 million). Total profits for the year sat at 12.51 billion yen ($113.17 million), up a strong 14.8% YoY.

Resident Evil is still Capcom's most popular series by a long, long shot.

Monster Hunter World is indeed Capcom's best-selling game of all time. Not only did Monster Hunter World oust Resident Evil 5's top spot, but it did so in less than a year and with massive live service earnings to boot. As popular as Monster Hunter is, the Resident Evil is still the king. In its latest financials Capcom outlined some interesting stats showing just how big of a lead Resident Evil has over its other IPs.

We've known Resident Evil is Capcom's biggest cash crop for a while now, and its latest, Resident Evil 2 REmake, has sold 4 million units so far. The figures show Resident Evil has sold 91 million copies worldwide, giving it a sizable 37 million lead over Monster Hunter, which has sold 54 million. Street Fighter comes in at third place with 42 million.

Quantic Dream has just opened up pre-orders of its PS4 exclusive titles now coming to the PC through the Epic Games Store with the releases of Beyond: Two Souls, Heavy Rain, and Detroit: Become Human coming soon.

Not only that but all of these games are included in the Epic Mega Sale which reduces their prices massively, with Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain dropping from their $39.99 price to just $19.99 while Detroit: Become Human drops from $29.90 down to $9.90. Between now and their release, we can expect a demo of Heavy Rain on May 24 and full release on June 24.

Beyond: Two Souls will see a demo drop on June 27 and then its full release on July 22 while Detroit: Become Human will see a demo released in the summer, with the game released sometime in the fall.

Capcom will only release one big game this year--a huge $40 expansion to Monster Hunter: World--and a few re-releases here and there. This could signal the company is holding back its big guns for next-gen consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Scarlett.

Capcom is one of the most interesting companies out there, and its yearly fiscal reports are always jam-packed full of info. While checking out the data I noticed its new release slate is very light. Last fiscal year Capcom released three huge games that all sold very well: Monster Hunter: World which became the company's best-selling game of all time with 12 million copies, Resident Evil 2 REmake which hit an impressive 4 million units, and Devil May Cry 5 with its "reinvigorating" 2 million sales.

But in the fiscal year ending March 2020, Capcom only has one big game in its pipeline, and it's not even an actual new release but instead the Monster Hunter World: Iceborne expansion.

In a not so surprising announcement, Capcom's flexible and potent RE Engine will serve as the base for its future games--especially its next-gen titles.

Capcom is on a roll lately. The company just reported record earnings for FY2018, seeing a monstrous $900 million in net sales and $113 million in profit. Monster Hunter: World amassed a massive 12 million copies sold in less than a year, Resident Evil 2 REmake hit 4 million sales, and DMC 5 pushed 2 million. All of these games were built using Capcom's in-house RE Engine. Now the company plans to leverage its strengths to ensure the hits keep on coming, and its proprietary games engine will be the gateway to its future titles.

In a recent fiscal Q&A session, Capcom COO and President Haruhiro Tsujimoto confirmed that RE Engine will power multiple new marquee games that're in development. None of these games are set to release this year though; Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is the only big new title for FY2019. "While we are unable to comment on the specific number of titles or release windows, there are numerous titles currently being developed internally with the RE ENGINE," Mr. Tsujimoto noted.

If you haven't seen John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, I suggestg you do. I saw it yesterday and absolutely loved it, I thought it was the best of the series and in the last 12 months it tops the still-awesome Mission Impossible: Fallout. But now, John Wick is battling it out in Fortnite in a new limited-time game mode.

The new Fortnite mode is called Wick's Bounty, which will see players dropping to the ground to collect the gold tokens inspired by the movie, as they defeat bounty hunters. If you stay alive enough you can collect the gold tokens by taking out enemies and exploring the environment, but when you start getting more tokens you'll be hunted down -- John Wick style.

The new Wick's Bounty LTM has its own challenges that will give you free rewards in Fortnite including Gold Token Back Bling, One Shot Glider, Boogeyman Wrap, and bonus XP before the event ends. You can visit the store to grab the John Wick Set which packs the John Wick Outfit (and it looks AWESOME) as well as the Simple Sledge Pickaxe.

Rocket Arena is a brand new arena battle shooter that has hit Steam, its developed by Final Strike Games and published by Nexom America.

Rocket Arena falls in the category of an arena shooter and pits 3 players vs another 3 players in a fast-paced, colorful, mechanically dependent, explosive battle arena. Players will be able to use a combination of mechanics to destroy, outwit and strategically overcome their opponents.

Kevin Franklin, Founder/CEO of Final Strike Games has described the development of Rocket Arena as "high-quality gameplay mechanics, superb controls, and the network code required of an online FPS. Rocket Arena is an intricate shooter at its core, complete with a marvelous world, colorful characters, and ridiculous rockets. Nexon shared our vision for Rocket Arena and provided the resources and expertise to realize our goal. The result is a game that our team is exceptionally proud of, and look forward to playing every day."

Ever wondered what the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fighting roster would look like if they were made into a live-action movie or brought to real-life? Well, here is your chance to find out.

Above we have an awesome collage from Raf Grassetti, who is the art director at Sony Santa Monica Studios and worked on the artistic design of the critically acclaimed God of War. From the image we can see a collection of Super Smash Bros. characters brought to life through incredible artistic talent.

While there is no doubt that these renders look incredible I can help but to feel a sense of discomfort when looking at some of them. Bowser looks absolutely terrifying, and so does King K. Rool. Yoshi looks so damn weird yet devilishly accurate if he was an actual dinosaur in the real-world. I think this mixture of uncomfortability yet amazement was what Grassetti was going for as he replied to fan that said "Sonic and Yoshi are freaking me out, not gonna lie", Grassetti replied "That's the point. Glad it's working".

Every gamer likes free games, as it comes to no skin of the gamers nose for receiving them. Ubisoft will be splashing PC gamers' libraries with a fresh hit of sporting action as STEEP is completely free for a limited time.

STEEP is enthusiasts sport game, it pits players against the cold harshness of icy mountains in timed or speed races in the forms of snowboarding, skiing, wingsuiting and paragliding. Players can take on the mountains either in solo play or side-by-side with a friend. Tricks and other forms of impressive feats are enabled from the slopes massive jumps and the tracks twists and turns, this separates the good players from the casual.

STEEP hit the shelves back in December of 2016 and now Ubisoft are giving it away to PC gamers completely free of charge until May 22nd. If you are interested in claiming your free copy of STEEP, click this link here.

Some new reports coming out of two of the largest movie news sources have claimed that Robert Pattinson and Nicholas Hoult are the two leading men being considered for the new actor to take up Batman's cape.

The reports have come out of Variety and Deadline. Variety has claimed that Harry Potter/Twilight actor Robert Pattinson is the leading actor being considered by Warner Bros. However, Deadline has reported that the deal between Pattinson and Warner has not been finalized as of yet and that Nicholas Hoult is also being heavily considered by Warner.

To throw some other names into the mix, The Hollywood Reporter has said that Armie Hammer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are also in the running for the Caped Crusader. The fact that new actors are being considered for the role of Batman comes after the unfortunate news of Batman v Superman actor Ben Affleck hanging up the cape. According to sources who have told Variety, the new Batman movie is expected to begin filming sometime later this year or early 2020.

Grand Theft Auto 6's development is likely ramping up at Rockstar Games as its parent company teases massive games pipeline.

We've been hearing about GTA 6 for a long time, and now that Rockstar is done with Red Dead Redemption 2, they can focus completely on the next Grand Theft Auto. Now Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive teases some big projects in the works...and we're betting one of them is GTA 6.

"We have the strongest development pipeline in our history, including sequels from our biggest franchises, along with exciting new IP," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said in the FY2019 earnings call.

Sony and Microsoft are joining forces to prepare for gaming's big cloud-based evolution.

In a move that could change everything, Sony and Microsoft have announced a strategic partnership that should pave the way for next-generation streaming, AI, and cloud-powered services. The agreement sees the two industry titans bringing their own strengths to the table for a kind of mutualistic synergy. Sony will bring its image sensors over so Microsoft can infuse its Azure-powered AI into them, and Microsoft will let Sony experiment with its Azure servers to host services like PlayStation Now and its retinue of online content on.

"Under the memorandum of understanding signed by the parties, the two companies will explore joint development of future cloud solutions in Microsoft Azure to support their respective game and content-streaming services," reads the announcement. "In addition, the two companies will explore the use of current Microsoft Azure datacenter-based solutions for Sony's game and content-streaming services. By working together, the companies aim to deliver more enhanced entertainment experiences for their worldwide customers. These efforts will also include building better development platforms for the content creator community."

Rainbow Six: Siege is Ubisoft's biggest single-game cash crop with over $1 billion generated so far.

Ubisoft's massively lucrative shooter Rainbow Six: Siege has been on the market for less than four years, but that didn't stop it from amassing a huge 1 billion Euros ($1.12 billion) in total lifetime earnings. In its latest FY2019 earnings report, Ubisoft confirmed the news and highlighted its digital dominance with some impressive stats. Not only did Rainbow Six: Siege rake over $1 billion in game sales, season passes, and direct in-game monetization since 2015, the online shooter now enjoys 45 million active players.

Rainbow Six: Siege shows no signs of stopping. The game probably won't ever get an actual sequel, but instead continually evolve with new content, operators, guns and maps over time. The game is doing so well that Ubisoft plans to support it for the next 10 years and the title will undoubtedly be a powerful instrument in its live services arsenal.

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is waging war on lootboxes and microtransactions, and a new bill could dramatically change the U.S. games industry by effectively illegalizing the revenue source. But some of gaming's biggest earners like Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive aren't worried.

In the AAA gaming space, publishers have slowly shifted away from lootboxes and randomized microtransactions in favor of more direct-buy storefronts. Lootboxes are still a billion dollar market for some games like Overwatch and the entire mobile market, but big industry movers like Take-Two Interactive favor pay-to-win style purchases that let consumers clearly see what they're buying. That hasn't stopped specific games like NBA 2K from becoming massive grindy time-sinks that heavily incentivize microtransaction purchases, which is the main way publishers try to circumvent using lootboxes.

In a recent earnings call, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick affirms any lootbox regulation won't really impact the company's bottom line simply because it doesn't rely heavily on them for its microtransaction earnings.

Outside of grabbing exclusives and offering free games, Epic's latest tact to get gamers to buy from its store is a familiar one: a massive Steam-esque sale.

Despite missing basic features like a shopping cart (yes it's still missing even during a big sale), the Epic Store is making a case for buying games on the platform. The store's first Epic Mega Sale is quite attractive and discounts key games by up to 75% off while also knocking off a clean $10 from any game over $15. The $10 promo does stack with sale prices, but the final prices are the ones listed on the store.

Example: World War Z is listed for $19.99, meaning that's the final price, and you won't get another $10 off. Only by navigating to the game's actual page will you see World War Z's sale price only knocked off $5 so the base sale price is $29.99, and then the $10 off promo is applied from that price. The way Epic frames the sale is a little misleading.

A new DLC is arriving for Soulcalibur VI tomorrow and it will be adding the unspeakable, cat hats. Yes, thats right, Soulcalibur VI will soon allow you to put cat hats on your fighters.

The announcement has come from the official Soulcalibur VI Twitter account and confirms that Soulcalibur VI will be updated to version 1.40. The update will be bringing 'Creation Parts' for both genders of the casts, totaling over 150 customization items, 87 new music tracks from previous Soulcalibur games, new colors, new update functions, numerous game adjustments, and balancing changes.

What shines most out of this update is the fact that players will be able to have feline fedoras, literal cat hats that are wearable. The Character Creation Set B will be released tomorrow on May 16th, and will be coming in at a price of $6. If you are interested in the full changes of this patch you can head on over to the official Bandai Namco website here.

Now that Nintendo has finished their Super Mario Maker 2 dedicated Nintendo Direct, we can sit down and compile each of the new features the upcoming game has has in-store for players.

Yesterday I reported on Nintendo announcing that there would be a Direct dedicated to the upcoming sequel of Super Mario Maker, Super Mario Maker 2. We previously have had some new features showcased to us but now Nintendo has done a deep dive into what is new about the coming game and what has been improved since the last one.

Just to summarize things to make it a bit easier, Super Mario Maker 2 will comes with a ton of new features, some include; Super Mario 3D World style, a multitude of new building and customization options, co-op and versus multiplayer and many more online tools. A full features list has been compiled within the entirety of this post, for more information head on over to the official Super Mario Maker 2 Nintendo eShop listing here.

It was recently announced that Capcom would be bringing the Dante over to the Nintendo Switch in a port of the first Devil May Cry game. It is now believe that the first Devil May Cry game will be the only Devil May Cry game coming to the Nintendo Switch.

Last week Capcom announced that Devil May Cry would be arriving on the Nintendo Switch as a download-exclusive title. USGamer has asked some questions to Capcom via email, in response to these questions Capcom PR has said that the coming Devil May Cry Switch edition is ported from the 2018 Devil May Cry HD remaster collection for the PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

While this may sound like the whole collection is heading over to the Nintendo Switch, this is not the case. Capcom will only be bringing the first Devil May Cry game to Nintendo's new platform and unfortunately the Big C currently has no plans on bringing Devil May Cry 2 or 3 to the scene. Here is the official quote from Capcom; "Capcom is focused on bringing the original Devil May Cry experience for the first time to a Nintendo system. No other titles have been announced."

There is no doubt that Age of Empires players have been left in the dark regarding the coming Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. Now we can expect that a teaser will be released soon as its in full preparation by Microsoft.

We have been hearing about the Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition for quite some time now, firstly we got a tease that an announcement would be arriving sometime "soon". Then it was planned that Age of Empires would have its own segment at the Inside Xbox event during March, unfortunately the AoE segment was pulled from the event.

It was summarized that the segment was pulled due to the announcement of the Master Chief Collection arriving on PC, more on that here. The most recent news we got surrounding AoE 2: Definitive Edition was the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) giving the title its official rating, check that out here. Since we haven't got any news for quite some I decided to ask the official Age of Empires Twitter when we could expect an announcement. The Twitter account replied to my question and said that they aren't "going to tease anything *just* yet, but we're preparing and plotting and getting ready to do just that!"