Gaming - Page 726

Now that Nintendo's new handheld-console Switch hybrid is now up to 34.74 million units sold worldwide, we put these numbers against the company's mighty forebears to see how the Switch stacks up.

Today Nintendo announced its Fiscal Year 2019 earnings and updated its historical console hardware and software sales. We decided to take a closer look at the Switch's performance and put it into perspective with what other Nintendo systems have achieved throughout the the decades.

In just two years, the Switch has outsold legacy systems like Nintendo 64 and Nintendo GameCube systems--both of which accrued their sales in a six-year lifespan. Right now the Switch has strong potential to topple Nintendo's historical legacy consoles, but handhelds are another story. The Switch has a long way to go before it tops titanic sells like the 3DS (75 million units), the Game Boy Advance (81 million units) and the reigning DS king (154.02 million sales).

Microsoft's gaming segment has been geared into an Xbox-as-a-service approach to deliver consistent earnings every quarter, and so far the strategy is working. But it's still a drop in the bucket compared to the titan's overall revenues.

Today Microsoft released its Fiscal Year Q3 2019 earnings, confirming tremendous quarterly revenues of $30.57 billion, up by 14% year-over-year. This growth was driven mostly by an explosive 73% earnings spike in Azure revenues, followed by jumps in cloud services, Dynamics 365 business software, and Surface hardware sales. Xbox, on the other hand, contributed markedly less than these other segments, showing gaming's place in Microsoft's grand scheme of things.

On a whole, Xbox gaming earned $2.36 billion in FY Q3'19 including full game sales, hardware purchases, microtransactions, and subscriptions, up a nice 5% year-over-year. But this is just 7.7% of the company's total earnings for the quarter, and roughly 22% of its More Personal Computing parent segment. Why does this matter? It really underlines the shift to make Xbox into a monetizable, cross-platform service that unifies multiple hardware mediums aimed at generated consistent revenues.

While most Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players are enjoying the games competitive scene there are still some players who enjoy Spirit Boards. This time round we have quite a unique Spirit Board event for fans.

The news comes from the official Nintendo Versus Twitter account who has posted what has been titled as the "Nintendo Labo: SMASH KIT" Spirit Board event. Players will be able to take on the the "event exclusive" spirits on the 25th of April, and upon completion players triple the usual amount of EXP gained.

During the time the event is live, players will be able to take on the Toy-Con Robot, the Toy-Con Car, the Toy-Con VR Goggles, Professor Riggs, Plaise, Lerna. If you were unaware, the last three mentioned in that list are characters in the Nintendo Labo Variety Kit software. In other news about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the title recently received its version 3.0.0 update that has added a bunch of new features that even include the first DLC fighter, Joker. If you are interested in learning about more about the 3.0 update, check out this post here. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is currently available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.

New information has surfaced regarding the sales of the recently released Persona 5. The sales figures indicate that Persona 5 has reached a new sales height of 2.7 million.

Back in January 2019, it was reported by Atlus that Persona 5 sold 2.4 million units and while that may not seem like many sales for a recently released game, keep in mind that this is a JRPG title. JRPG titles aren't the most popular genre of game, so seeing 2.4 million units sold for an individual title is more the an achievement on the designer Naoya Maeda.

New statistical sales for the game have now been revealed on the official Japanese Amazon listing for Persona 5, according to the listing the original Persona 5 game has now surpassed for 2.7 million units. In some other Persona 5 news, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate recently introduced their first DLC fighter 'Joker' who is a character from the Persona series, more on that story here. Persona 5 is available on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.

Bandai Namco has officially revealed that the sixth iteration of Goku will be soon coming to Dragon Ball FighterZ, introducing Goku (GT) and his epic Super Saiyan 3 Kamehameha wave.

Back in late March we learned that Bandai would be bringing out a new version of Goku, this version of Goku would be based on the Dragon Ball GT TV series Goku. Goku (GT) comes in kid form and is apart of the Dragon Ball FighterZ Pass 2, he will be coming with a unique set of combo moves that even include his power pole.

The reveal trailer also shows that Goku (GT) will be able to transform into Super Saiyan 3 and perform the epic Super Kamehameha wave on his opponents. Closer to the end of the video we see a full transformation into Goku Super Saiyan 4, which somehow brings kid Goku to a fully grown adult. Dragon Ball FighterZ FighterZ Pass 2 Goku (GT) fighter will be unclockable from May 9th. For further information visit the official Bandai website here.

Capcom's Devil May Cry 5 was quite the success and has continued Capcom's smash hit releases, but is there anymore content planned for Devil May Cry 5 players to enjoy? Unfortunately not.

The announcement comes from a Producer at Capcom called Matt Walker. Walker says in a reply to fan asking him if Vergil will be a playable character soon, "Unfortunately we don't plan on adding any more content to DMC5." To further clarify that there is no more Devil May Cry 5 content in the pipeline, Walker says in a separate reply to a fan asking about a rumored "ladies night" DLC "Unfortunately dev on DMC5 is finished. I'd personally like to see the ladies playable too. We can only hope that at some point we can convince the people up top that it's worth doing."

It is certainly a shame that Capcom doesn't have any more new content planned for Devil May Cry 5, as the title has been received very well by fans so I'd assume future DLC content would have also be very well received. Devil May Cry 5 is currently available on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. For more information regarding the title, visit the official Devil May Cry 5 website here.

The imaginative filled Mario title, Super Mario Maker 2 has been announced to be debuting to Nintendo's Nintendo Switch later this year.

Back in early February, Nintendo announced that they would be bringing a new sequel to the extremely popular Mario title, Super Mario Maker. While the initial announcement was a quick 1:30 trailer it showed off some brand new features players will be able to enjoy once the title is released. Now, Nintendo have solidified the release date for the game with a recent announcement on the official Nintendo America Twitter account.

The above announcement has confirmed that Super Mario Maker 2 will be hitting the Nintendo Switch late June this year. Specifically, the sequel will coming to the Nintendo Switch on June 28th, and as we move closer to the release date I'm sure Nintendo will be sharing some more new features that will be apart of the sequel. Last week I reported on a coming update to the Super Mario Maker website, that update has now been made live so if you are after more information for Super Mario Maker 2 head on over to the official website here.

I didn't think one of the biggest stories of the year for TweakTown would be something covering Minecraft with 'ray tracing' style effects with the SEUS Renewed mod that uses path tracing that provides ray tracing-like effects. First we had screenshots and small videos, but now there's a detailed video of Minecraft with the ray tracing-style effects and it looks awesome.

The shader pack provides beautifully realistic lighting, shadow and reflection effects to shiny surfaces, light shafts, and more. The demo video from Digital Foundry was run on an Intel Core i9-7900X, 32GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. Even with this horsepower running Minecraft with the path tracing effects at 1080p was still struggling to hit 60FPS.

The team at Digital Foundry do an amazing job at showing off the different effects that path tracing brings to Minecraft, with one of the best uses seeing light hitting a wall, and then shining light again behind it causing different shadows to be cast. This can't be done with pre-baked lighting, and is only achievable with path tracing or real-time ray tracing effects.

Remedy's new game has been detailed in some beautiful new 4K screenshots, with supernatural action adventure game 'Control' shown off in all of its 4G glory below.

Control is powered by Remedy's own in-house Northlight engine, where the entire game takes place within the confines of a haunted house with supernatural elements messing with your mind, and the game itself. You'll play as Jesse Faden, that seems to have multiple supernatural abilities that gives you control of the environment, your own body so you can float through the air, and telekinesis to use the environment for your benefit, or against the enemy.

Remedy has made some of the best use of dynamic environmental destruction seen yet, with Control letting you unleash totally new gameplay situations from it. You can use your powers to rip a wall down and form it into a barricade for you, or pick up a large object and use your telekinesis to see it flying into and taking down an enemy.

Microsoft is all about monetizing its games and selling services, and these tactics are found in all of its first-party games. But every quarter it also makes a pretty penny from third-party games like Grand Theft Auto Online, Apex Legends, Fortnite and Rocket League by proxy.

Today Microsoft announced its Fiscal Year Q3 2019 earnings, showing decent growth in its Xbox gaming branch. One thing caught my eye, though: earnings from software services are up 12% year-over-year. This is quite a jump during a historical lull point following the huge holiday spending spree. Consumers typically slow down with spending following Christmas and Black Friday. Microsoft says this spike was "driven by third-party title monetization and subscriptions growth," which falls perfectly into the company's gaming wheelhouse.

This trend shows that Microsoft's strategy of unifying Xbox consoles and Windows 10 PCs with paid subscriptions and services is working quite well. It says a lot that Microsoft can deliver growth in this segment during a slower period like its Q3 window. I'm betting that its recent $1 starter promos on Game Pass and consistent Xbox LIVE subs drive the services portion, whereas big-name games like Apex Legends, Fortnite, and even recently-released titles like Anthem helped drive microtransaction earnings.

Talented scripter rmemr has created a Witcher 3 modding toolset that allows gamers to create their own custom quests.

The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine expansion closed the book on Geralt of Rivia's official story, but thanks to a new toolset called Radish Modding Tools, gamers can embark on their own tailor-made adventures.

The tools are still in early beta-like phases of development, and won't create huge sprawling epic quests, just smaller-based experiences like side missions and the like. But the quests can still have multiple parts, as shown in the proof-of-concept video above. Even still, CD Projekt RED's magnum opus could get a breath of fresh air as other modders iterate, adopt Radish, and roll out new stuff on Nexus Mods.

UPDATE: Netherealm's Ed Boon confirms that the "vast majority" of Mortal Kombat 11 skins aren't sold on the shop. This means instead of paying money, gamers will instead need to pay time to unlock content. The grind is still immensely tedious, however, and the RNG-fueled grind remains.

Don't have time to unlock all of Mortal Kombat 11's skins? WB Games is counting on that, and is all too eager to serve up microtransaction shortcuts.

A redditor has done some math to expose just how awful Mortal Kombat 11's greedy monetization tactics are. According to some simple calculations, it'd take $6,440 worth of Time Crystals to unlock every skin for every default character (not including Shao Kahn and Frost, which are paywalled). Even then it's not a guaranteed bet as chests in the Krypt are re-randomized in a 6-8 hour window.

Nintendo plans to release a budget-friendly Switch handheld-console model this June, sources tell Bloomberg.

The Switch has always been Nintendo's future. The wildly successful handheld-console hybrid is an evolution of Nintendo's hardware history--the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS handheld all led up to the Switch. Now with a new cheaper Switch on the way aimed at replacing the 3DS, the Switch is set to fulfill its destiny as the core center of the company's gaming presence.

Sources tell Bloomberg that the long-rumored Switch Mini or Switch Lite is on the way, and could launch as soon as June of this year to slowly replace the 8 year-old 3DS handheld. No official details on the new system have been confirmed. Analysts predict the system will have certain features shaved off to save money, which could drop the cost to $199, down from the current Switch's $299.

A handful of football stars got to try out Infinity Ward's new Call of Duty game at a recent private event, hyping up the shooter before its official announcement.

If a recent closed-doors event is any indication, Activision should unveil Call of Duty 2019 soon. A number of high-profile athletes have playtested this year's big Call of Duty, and all of them say it's absolute fire. The athletes dropped hype-building teases on Instagram with the #CallOfDutyPartner hashtag. Of course no one dropped any actual info about the shooter, but reports say it'll be Modern Warfare 4.

Activision has confirmed a few details about the next Call of Duty. Unlike Black Ops 4, Infinity Ward's new CoD will have a more grounded story-driven campaign mode complete with co-op action.

Reports now say Nintendo isn't making a more powerful Switch handheld-console hybrid, and will instead update existing SKUs with almost negligible upgrades.

Earlier this month, key sources told Eurogamer and The Wall Street Journal that two new Switch models would release in 2019: a higher-end next-gen model with beefier specs and performance (dubbed the Switch Pro or Switch+) and a cheaper version aimed at replacing the flagging 3DS (dubbed the Switch Mini, or Switch Lite). Further info gleaned from Nikkei said the next-gen Switch had been put off because Nintendo hadn't outlined its plans yet. Now sources tell Bloomberg that this isn't the case.

A next-gen Switch isn't in development, new sources close to the matter told Bloomberg. Instead Nintendo will provide smaller upgrades to the existing Switch model. This matches up with previous WSJ reports that Nintendo would spruce up the Switch's 6.2-inch 720p LCD screen to an OLED panel and possibly amp the base model's 4310mAh battery size and add quick charging options.

A new firmware update has been released for the Nintendo Switch and it brings the system up to version 8.0.1.

Last week Nintendo released a massive firmware update for the Nintendo Switch. The update brought the system to version 8.0.0 and added several new functionality features such as a sorting software option, 'view all news option' 15 new avatars, a transfer save data feature, a zoom feature, sleep mode and much more.

The new update that was recently released hasn't added as much as version 8.0.0, in fact no new features have been released at all. This new firmware update is purely for "General system stability improvements to enhance the user's experience." If you are interested in checking out the other updates for the Nintendo Switch that Nintendo has released, visit the official Nintendo website here.

Its not everyday that you hear about an airborne crab almost connecting with a pro gamer while the gamer is mid match, but today is that day and what better game for it to happen then Super Smash Bros?

One of the most well known Super Smash Bros. players of all time is Super Smash Bros. Melee pro player Juan "Hungrybox" DeBiedma. During the Pound 2019 grand final against Cloud9's Joseph "Mango" Marquez, Hungrybox was subjected to a slight bit of hate from one of the fans in the crowd after he took home the competition.

A fan decided to launch a dead crab at Hungrybox as the player was packing up his controller. Not surprisingly after the shock subsided, Hungrybox stood up and began shouting at the crowd in anger. Hungrybox later then took to Twitter to apologize for his behavior with the crab saying "Sorry for losing my temper. Someone threw a fucking raw crab at me. After a 5 set losers run. Barely missed my head." The officials of Pound have come out and said that they intend to permanently ban the crab thrower but will not be releasing his name out to the public.

Square Enix have decided to release the final DLC for their recently released title Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The final DLC is called "The Path Home" and the soundtrack has been showcased in the below trailer.

The new DLC has dropped today and surprisingly enough Square Enix has decided to not show a gameplay or cinematic trailer for this DLC. Instead all we have to off of is the above soundtrack and the official description that Square Enix has provided. According to the description, the DLC will follow Lara and her journey to ancient tunnels through a "brand-new challenge tomb, which contains a secret that's been hidden for ages."

The brand new tomb for Shadow of the Tomb Raider players to enjoy is not the only thing included within this DLC. Players will also receive "The new Midnight Sentinel outfit, which enables longer focus and perception durations, and the Silver Strike bow, which causes arrows to penetrate enemy body armor or even pierce multiple unarmored enemies. In addition, the new Magic Touch skill allows Lara to consume fewer resources when crafting on the go." Shadow of the Tomb Raider is currently available on Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The Path Home DLC is currently available for purchase and download.

World War Z has finally hit the market and has received quite the level of criticism, regardless of that though the title has managed to hit a new milestone in sales.

According to an official announcement on the Epic Games Twitter page, Saber Interactive's title World War Z has managed to make 250,000 sales on the Epic Games Store. Many fans of the game have commented on the announcement from Epic with their concerns for the titles sales and how they would compare if the game launched on Steam instead of the Epic Games Store.

Recent reports have now said that World War Z has managed a total 1 million sales across all platforms, which is quite an achievement for both developer Saber Interactive and publisher MadDog Games and Focus Home Interactive. World War Z is currently available for purchase on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. For more information, head on over to the official World War Z website here.

Snoop Dogg has continued his legacy of being an avid video game fan by hosting his very Mortal Kombat 11 tournament. Enter the "Snoop Dogg's Gangsta Gaming League" for the 'King of the Kompound'.

Snoop Dogg has taken to his personal Twitter to reveal that he is hosted his own Mortal Kombat 11 competition showdown with some of his close friends. Some of Snoops friends included rapper 21 Savage, Rachel Ako, Kamil McFadden, Rachel Swindler, Dashae Frost and Dan Rue. The stream was featured on mixer as well as Twitch.tv and also directed viewers to the website Merry Jane.

This isn't the first time we have seen Snoop embrace his gaming side, we last saw him receiving his very own copy of Spyro Reignited Trilogy as he is a massive fan of the original Spyro games, check that story out here. In other news about Mortal Kombat 11, check out the Nintendo Switch gameplay trailer here, or you can watch the brutal trailer of the recently revealed Frost fighter here. Mortal Kombat 11 has officially launched and is available on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC and Nintendo Switch.