Gaming - Page 749

To no one's surprise, Activision's main goal in the games industry is to make money. But how it goes about raking in those billions has caused lots of scrutiny from gamers and critics alike. Tactics like lootboxes, free-to-play monetization, and other microtransaction schemes are hallmarks of its business, and this trend isn't about to change any time soon.

While scouting Activision's latest SEC Filing I found something quite interesting. In one section the company outlines its overall vision and the pillars of its business, and none of them are too exciting. Making big new games is only a small part of Activision-Blizzard's plans--the bulk of it revolves around monetizing them.

Blizzard is indeed working on a bunch of new projects but these games are basically built around live service earnings via microtransactions and monetization rather than the other way around.

Guerrilla Games are celebrating their two year anniversary of Horizon Zero Dawn, in celebration of the anniversary the developer reveals the total amount of sales for the PS4 exclusive title.

Guerrilla Games' managing director, Hermen Hulst came out with a full statement celebrating the anniversary. Hulst recounts when the game launched back on February 28th, 2017. Hulst says that he "attending GDC and counting down the minutes with a group of fellow Guerrillas and Shuhei Yoshida. Early feedback suggested that we had something special on our hands, but we never suspected that we'd still be receiving daily messages of appreciation from our players in 2019."

Hulst continues to express his gratitude to his audience by saying; "And yet, here we are, already well over 10 million copies sold worldwide; the idea that we were able to bring Aloy's journey to so many players is astounding. We've been deeply moved by the enormous amount of fan creations you've posted online, as well as the heartfelt letters you've sent sharing your favorite moments from Aloy's journey."

Capcom have come out in full swing today as the company has released the pre-launch trailer for the upcoming Devil May Cry 5. The trailer teases fans with a new character that some might find familiar...

It should be noted that this pre-launch trailer does contain a considerable amount of story scenes, while they may not be played in chronological order I would still consider the contents "spoiler" worthy. We see glimpses at what seems like key storyline moments as well as what appears to be pivotal boss fight.

Moving onto what the trailer showcases now. We see an awesome combination of gameplay, fighting and cut scenes. Thrown in closer to the end of the trailer is the big reveal of Dante's brother, Vergil. While the initial reveal of Vergil isn't that surprising, considering he is a character in the other Devil May Cry games. The main question raised is will be playable or just another character influence the games storyline? It would be very awesome if Vergil joined sides with Nero, Danta and V and became a playable character with a unique set of abilities. Devil May Cry 5 will be launching on the PC, Xbox One and PS4 on March 8th.

There is many games franchises I would love to see come to Nintendo Switch, and I'd say Capcom's Devil May Cry series is definitely one of them. Why wouldn't you want one of the most classic hack-and-slash series available everywhere?

It seems both the producer and director of Devil May Cry, Hideaki Itsuno and Matt Walker agree as well. In a statement to Express Online, the director and the producer said that they would "love" to be able to play a Devil May Cry game on the Nintendo Switch. Walker further explained that he is one of those guys that want to see "everything on Switch", saying that he is "always asking for ports".

I would certainly agree with both Hideaki Itsuno and Matt Walker, having Devil May Cry on the Nintendo Switch would truly be awesome. Would they start off with Devil May Cry 5 though? My guess would be perhaps not first, I would assume Capcom would more likely start off with the earlier releases in the series as kind of an ice breaker. Being an owner of a Nintendo Switch, I would imagine that having a great hack-and-slash franchise such as Devil May Cry completely portable and available anywhere wouldn't result in negative fan feedback. Switch owners would simply eat this game up.

The Division 2 open beta kicks off tomorrow, with Ubisoft now pre-loading the game across the Xbox One, PS4, and the PC. The upcoming open beta takes place over the weekend between March 1-4.

Ubisoft will be offering up 3 main missions that can be played on both Normal and Hard difficulties, where you'll get to check out the Grand Washington Hotel, Jefferson Trade Center, and the Viewpoint Museum. The first two were available to play in the private betas of The Division 2, but now everyone will get to check it out courtesy of the open beta.

There are some new things in the open beta where once you're over and done with the Jefferson Trade Center, you'll have 3 level 30 characters that you can play in endgame content. The Division 2 open beta will also include Skirmish PvP made dubbed Capitol Ruins, as well as two more Settlement Projects.

Epic Games is gearing up for the launch of Season 8 of Fortnite with a huge tease of Weezer World, with their upcoming self-titled album known as 'The Black Album' dropping songs in the Weezer-themed island on Fortnite.

Weezer World is an island that is available in creative mode, and acts as a gigantic Weezer-themed amusement park that is playing tracks from the unreleased album. Rivers Cuomo, the frontman for Weezer, is a huge Fortnite fan and plays the game with his daughter. Weezer even posted to its own Twitter account that 'Fortnite Weezon 8 live now' which is a very cool way to get Fortnite players to know about your new album.

Fortnite isn't shy to in-game concerts as this isn't a first time, with artist Marshmello entering the game in a one-off event. With the likes of Weezer debuting unreleased songs in Fortnite, we could see more and more of this - using games as a marketing platform for music, TV and movie teasers and trailers, and more. What do you think?

The Division is right around the corner with developer Massive Entertainment talking more about the game and the fact the studio expanded its staff after the first game, as well as its sibling studio in Stockholm beefed up with more staff.

During an interview in the latest EDGE magazine, Managing Director of Massive Entertainment, David Polfeldt said: "If you look at the learnings we made from The Division, we know that people play the game in quite different ways. And people fall in love with different aspects of the game. The Division is expected to cater to quite a lot of tastes, which is never an easy thing".

He continued: "How do you create a game that caters to all that? The answer is that you have to create a monster game. I think this is a challenge for some other games that are in the same genre: you're expected to deliver on a lot of different tastes and preferences. It's really fun to do, but it's not easy. And yet you also have to remember that Massive is a studio that is 20 years old, and we don't want the easiest challenge. We want to win the Champions League. And yes, that's really difficult, but that's why it's exciting to us".

Anthem is getting a much-needed loot system overhaul as BioWare listens closely to player feedback.

There's a right way to do randomized loot. Games like Diablo nearly perfected this model by assigning stats that actually make sense and match the gear they're attached to. Diablo 2 had prefixes and suffixes that determined the effects of weapons, armor, and jewelry, complete with unique items that had set stats with different values (or rolls, as they're called). But Anthem's launch is a pure example of how to completely ruin randomized loot, and showed the game needed more time in the oven.

Anthem basically tried to over-randomize the stats, or "inscriptions," that are applied to the weapons and components. Any inscription could be applied to any weapon, regardless if it didn't make sense. This resulted in Masterwork items that negated any real beneficial effect, like flamethrowers that added physical damage by 0% for 0 seconds. Now BioWare is changing things up and trying to limit which stats can appear on which items.

To celebrate its long history with PAX East, Gearbox should unveil its big new Borderlands FPS looter at the event.

Borderlands 3 has been in development for years now, and after a big delay Gearbox should finally be ready to unveil their chaotic FPS at PAX East. Gearbox is holding a one-hour showcase at the event on Thursday, March 28 at 2PM EST where it will have "never-before-seen reveals, exclusives, and surprises."

Borderlands publisher Take-Two Interactive reiterated that Borderlands 3 will launch sometime in its current fiscal year, which means a possible 2019 or Spring 2020 release.

Horizon: Zero Dawn turns two today, and Guerrilla shares some lesser-known tidbits about its open world baby.

If you own a PS4 then there's games you simply must own, and Horizon: Zero Dawn is one of them. The world is so exotic and unique, the visuals so pristine and impressive, the combat so fluid and chaotic, and the facial animations put most new games to shame. Thanks to its stalwart quality, Horizon: Zero Dawn has now sold well over 10 million copies worldwide and is a big new IP for Sony's first-party brand.

Now Guerrilla Games' Herman Hulst gives us a peek behind the curtain to see how this ambitious project was made. In a PlayStation Blog post, Hulst says original prototyping of Horizon: Zero Dawn began way, way back in 2010 when it was finishing up Killzone 3. Aloy's character and models weren't ready yet so the team used a character from its Killzone games.

Microsoft makes advancements in new technologies that could allow native Game Pass support on Windows 10 PCs.

We've long reported that Xbox is no longer a console, but a service that bridges both consoles and PCs. That's exactly how Microsoft wants it. The company makes billions from its big service-first business model, with subscriptions like Game Pass, Xbox LIVE Gold, and even its Mixer broadcasting platform all contributing strongly. Game Pass in particular has done quite well, sparking full game sales and boosting Gold subscribers and engagement (even Microsoft's own games are now additive to Game Pass).

Now Microsoft is making foundational steps to bring Game Passes' full arsenal of games on PC--which was always in the cards. The company is testing native Xbox game support on PCs. Starting with a preview test build of State of Decay 2, Microsoft now delivers assets and files from the Xbox version of the game rather than the PC ported version. This has lots of far-reaching implications that could see Xbox making a big splash on PC.

CD Projekt RED's hugely ambitious RPG shooter will take over E3 again this year, and we might get an actual release date too.

Today CDPR confirmed Cyberpunk 2077, the studio's absolutely massive and dynamic sci-punk FPS, will make an appearance at E3 2019. It's likely we'll get new gameplay footage, fresh details about the world of Night City and game mechanics, and possibly even a launch window for current platforms. The developer blew the doors off of last year's show with a huge 48-minute gameplay demo that exposed thrilling shooter action in an incredibly layered high-tech metropolis.

Just like at E3 2018, Cyberpunk 2077 should be shown during the Xbox showcase and it's likely CDPR has signed a deal with Microsoft to promote the game. The studio has been busily crafting Cyberpunk 2077 for about 5 years now and built a new next-gen engine and powerful tech to power the game.

The Evolution Championship Series, or EVO for short is an annual esports event that focusses on fighting games. This years EVO will not feature Super Smash Bros. Melee, but instead the new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

The line-up for the fighting games that are going to be featured at this years EVO have been announced. Fans that are apart of 2001's Super Smash Bros. Melee community received a stab in the heart as they skimmed over the game line-up as Melee was not featured, instead it has been replaced with the new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. This has come as quite a shock to some Melee fans, as Smash Melee was one of EVO's biggest attractions and has quite the dedicated fan base.

Many Melee fans have taken to Twitter to express their disgust in the decision to not include Melee at EVO 2019. Chiming in on the topic was top-ranked pro Melee player "Leffen", stating "No EVO for Melee is sad but definitely not a huge blow to the community honestly. They prioritized games that paid them to be there instead of viewership or community support and thats sad but its also reality. Melee will be fine. Let's celebrate no Bo3 Majors this year."

Capcom is proud of their efforts with Resident Evil 2's remake, and so they should be. The game was a fantastic success and now we have some official sales numbers to back that up.

Resident Evil 2 Remake was well received by the Resident Evil community, some fans even calling it the greatest remake of a game in gaming history. While the game has no doubt been a success for Capcom, how much of a success has it been exactly? According to an announcement on the Capcom website, Resident Evil 2 has managed to sell 4 million units worldwide.

Capcom also gave a sales comparison to the original Resident Evil 2 which was released back in 1998. The second instalment in the Resident Evil series went on to achieve sales of 4.9 million units, making it the fourth best-selling game in the franchise. The 2019 re-release of Resident Evil 2 almost met the sales of the original and could possibly go on to beat them once some time has passed. This is quite the achievement for a 1998 game that has been re-built from the ground up for modern day consoles and PC.

Johnny Cage has made a massive entry into Mortal Kombat 11, kicking, punching and even throwing his sunglasses at his opponents. Not to mention a fatality that will certainly be remembered.

Johnny Cage is one of the original first seven Mortal Kombat fighters and appeared in the first release of the Mortal Kombat series in 1992. Cage's character is narcissistic Hollywood movie star who has been mostly viewed by the audience as the character that applies some level of comic relief. What we see in today fighter reveal trailer released through the IGN YouTube Channel is exactly that. Cages large variety of moves are quite funny, such as taking photos of his opponent and even throwing his sunglasses at them. Not to mention the brutal combinations of punches and kicks.

Most note worthy though is definitely Cage's 'fatality', the actor takes the opponent to the set of movie theatre where a movie shot is being taken for a 'brutal uppercut'. We see the movie clapperboard with 'take 02' on it, as well as in the director category Mortal Kombat 11's director 'Ed Boon'. Cage attempts to hit the perfect uppercut on his opponent, eventually taking his/hers head off, he then proceeds to throw it at the camera. I would say this has been the most creative fatality we have seen from Mortal Kombat 11 so far.

Starbreeze Studios are trying to salvage the relationship with The Walking Dead IP holder Skybound Entertainment in hopes of rekindling efforts made towards OVERKILL's The Walking Dead.

Yesterday, we saw a statement coming out from The Walking Dead's IP holder, Skybound Entertainment. The statement read that the relationship between Skybound and OVERKILL's The Walking Dead's publisher, Starbreeze Studios has been terminated through a cutting of their contract.

The reasoning for the ending of the partnership was due to OVERKill's The Walking Dead not reaching the standards, of not only Skybound Entertainment, but the players as well. The termination of the contract meant that PC gamers would no longer receive support from the developers, and a cancellation of a release on consoles.

Microsoft is going to have one of the biggest years in its history this year, with all cylinders firing with the unveiling of its HoloLens 2 headset during MWC 2019, and its upcoming unveiling of the next-generation Xbox consoles at E3 2019. But in the middle of all of this is the super-successful Surface line of products, and then the PC and PC gaming markets that Microsoft doesn't really seem to care about.

This is something that needs some serious love and attention from Microsoft, something that Phil Spencer as the new head of gaming at the company, will hopefully change. Spencer recently talked with PC Gamer onw hat to expect from the company this year, where during his chat he touched on the future of PC gaming at Microsoft with next-gen Xbox consoles on the horizon, explaining: "Delivering great gaming experience to PC players is critically important to the future of Xbox and gaming at Microsoft". Spencer gets serious, putting it all on the table saying that as the creator of Windows, Microsoft has a "responsibility to invest in new ways we can benefit the PC player to help ensure they stay at the center of the experience".

"While we are proud of our PC gaming heritage, we've made some mistakes along our journey. We know we have to move forward, informed by our past, with the unique wants, needs and challenges of the PC player at the center of decisions we make. I know we've talked quite a bit over time about what we want to deliver for the player on PC, but at E3 this year, and throughout 2019, you'll begin to see where we've been investing to deliver across Store, services, in Windows and in great games. It's just the beginning".

Phil Spencer is the now ex-boss of the Xbox division at Microsoft, promoted to VP of Gaming at Microsoft in late-2017 he has been hard at work on the future of gaming for Microsoft with both the PC and Xbox.

PC Gamer recently spoke with Spencer about the world of gaming under his control at Microsoft, with some good questions thrown in about the future of PC gaming, what freedom acquired studios will have under Microsoft, and whether we'll see Xbox Games Studio releases make their way to Steam. That is a big deal on its own, seeing Microsoft unravel some of that tightly gripped control over to a competitor like Steam, but with the likes of every developer and company opening up their own digital distribution platforms it makes sense for Microsoft to relax that grip, even if it's just a little.

Spencer said to the question about future Xbox Games Studios releasing on Steam as well as the Microsoft store with: "It's a good question and something we've spent a lot of time thinking through. I expect us to share more details on our plans here soon". Maybe we could expect some news at E3 2019, which is where Microsoft should also unveil its larger plans for Windows 10 and Xbox gaming, as well as the next-generation Xbox consoles.

Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment is at its peak right now, but things are about to get a whole lot better with news that the team will be unveiling Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in April.

It was previously rumored that Respawn and EA would show off Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order at E3 2019, but through an announcement on StarWars.com today, we found this out: "In a special panel on Saturday, April 13, EA and Respawn will pull back the curtain on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, in which gamers will meet a Padawan who survived Order 66 and explore the galaxy in the time after the fall of the Jedi Order".

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will be detailed during the Star Wars Celebration between April 11-15, 2019, to McCormick Place in Chicago, IL with Respawn teasing: "The discussion will feature never-before-released details ahead of the game's fall 2019 release". We don't have much longer to wait, and there are plenty of other Star Wars related releases this year to be excited over.

Sony doesn't add anything back to fill the big Vita and PS3-shaped holes in its PS Plus service, significantly dropping its attractiveness.

Starting next month, Sony will reduce the overall value of its PlayStation Plus subscription by ceasing free PS Vita and PS3 games. PS Plus will now only include two free PS4 games and nothing else outside of store discounts various promos. March's free games, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered and The Witness, are pretty good but not amazing enough to offset the value the service loses.

We knew this would happen but we didn't know if Sony would add something new to make up for the loss. I originally thought this move would lead to bigger games offered on PS Plus, but the first month under the new rules isn't as attractive as it should be. This move comes at a point where Sony is constantly re-evaluating ways to increase PS Plus subscriber growth. It recently boosted value by expanding cloud saves to 100GB, but pulling free games is a big mark against the service.