Gaming - Page 748

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!"

The Division 2 is doing extremely well on the PC and not-so-well on consoles, with Ubisoft talking about the success of the game on the PC including the huge sales on Uplay. We've also benchmarked 20 graphics cards on The Division 2, check it out!

The Uplay version of The Division 2 has sold a huge 10x more than the original did on Uplay, but the original game was also on Steam -- something its successor isn't available on. So of course the success of The Division 2 on Uplay is 10x bigger, as you can only get it on Ubisoft's own Uplay but the developer has also allowed the game on the Epic Games Store.

Ubisoft detailed its sales (which Derek covered here) with PC sales up 79% which is pretty good considering the PC now represents 27% of Ubisoft's overall revenue. If we rewind the clock back to 2018 the PC only made up 18% of Ubisoft's yearly revenue, meaning the PC has become a much more important platform for the company. Uplay also enjoyed a huge 150% rise in sales compared to 2018 which will help those numbers, and The Division 2 selling on Uplay versus Steam would've helped that massively.

E3 2019 is definitely heating up with digital streaming giant Netflix joining the fray with the announcement of its own panel at E3 2019 called "Bringing Your Favorite Shows to Life: Developing Netflix Originals into Video Games".

We already know that Netflix is working on a Stranger Things game (especially since Telltale closed its doors while in the middle of developing a Stranger Things game) but it looks like the company has a much broader plan for its journey into the gaming world, with the NX on Netflix Twitter account tweeting out:

Netflix will be hosting its E3 2019 panel when the show kicks off in LA on June 11, where I'm sure we'll find out exactly what Netflix is planning when it comes to gaming.

RAGE 2 has officially launched with the game being co-developed between original RAGE and idTech engine creator id Software and Avalanche Studios, the team behind Just Cause and Mad Max and the developer is already talking about RAGE 3.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, id Software boss Tim Willits said that he is excited on the thought of developing RAGE 3. He said: "I hope so. Yes, is the answer to that question. We've always loved this franchise because it's such a fun setting. We can do what we want. We were once talking about riding on giant cockroaches. What other game can you have a conversation where that's a legitimate conversation you can have?! It's a crazy, fun, exciting franchise and I hope we can make a third one as soon as possible".

You can read the entire interview at The Hollywood Reporter.

Watch Dogs 3 shouldn't release before 2020 as Ubisoft plans to round out its fiscal year with three big AAA games.

Today Ubisoft reiterated plans to ship three more unannounced AAA games this fiscal year, and locked in a strange timeframe for the trio. According to its latest financials, the publisher expects to launch these titles in the fourth quarter of FY2020 from January - March 31, 2020. The company will actually ship four big marquee titles this year but only one of them has been revealed so far: Ghost Recon: Breakpoint was announced days ago and is planned for a third quarter launch on October 4, 2019.

Although the three remaining games are technically a mystery, reports indicate at least one of them will be Watch Dogs 3. Sources say Watch Dogs 3 will take place in a high-tech London with a strong emphasis on punkish, anti-establishment themes. Reports also said Watch Dogs 3 would hit in 2019.

Ubisoft's latest trajectory shows it'll soon join the likes of EA in making more money from live services than full game sales.

Today Ubisoft announced its earnings for Fiscal Year 2019, proving its pivot towards digital is paying off. Some years ago Ubisoft made the decision to chase online-driven digital content and infuse live services into all of its games, including singleplayer-only titles like Assassin's Creed. The result is the massive empire of monetized, long-lived games that generate lots of cash years after their initial release. Ubisoft's tremendous success with this plan cements live services into its future.

Its FY2019 revenues show just how well this strategy is working. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, Ubisoft made the lion's share of its money from digital thanks to the added bonus of microtransactions. The publisher earned $1.56 billion from digital sales, representing a huge 68% of total sales, up a mighty 39% year-over-year. Recurring player investment, Ubisoft's term for microtransactions, season passes, and DLC, was up a whopping 33% year-over-year to $721.76 million.