Gaming - Page 751

Don't worry fellow Apex players, Respawn is aware of the hitboxes being a bit iffy in Apex Legends and the team is working on it. To bring you up to speed, YouTuber 'SookieSpy' has a good video that'll run you through the issue, check it out:

This is a big issue for Apex Legends players depending on the legend you're playing, because the hitbox for Gibraltar is 140% larger than Wraith, but then you can shoot between the legs of legends like Bloodhound works, but it won't work on Pathfinder. Pathfinder is a favorite legend for many players, with lots of them turning off the legend because of the hitboxes being a big problem.

In a post on Reddit, a Respawn community manager said: "We are definitely aware of it and we were actually discussing it today. I can't say anything more for now but we hear you guys".

Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix isn't doing so great right now financially, and key franchises aren't meeting expectations.

Square Enix's nine-month earnings show a company in decline. Luckily it has the massive success of Kingdom Hearts III to surge Q4 earnings, but for the first three quarters the publisher didn't fare as well as it wanted to.

The company saw multiple drops in revenue across the board. Operating profit for the first nine months was down by a whopping 65% to 11.7 billion yen, total income was down by 54% to 15.9 billion yen, and total profits Square Enix raked in were down a big 60% to 8.9 billion yen. This is comparitive performance, of course, and Square Enix's FY2018 was stronger with multiple MMO expansions, strong smartphone game earnings, and great sales of games like NieR: Automata, various Kingdom Hearts re-releases, and Dragon Quest titles. So this decline is natural given the publisher's leaner release slate and decline in smartphone revenues, but the games it did manage to ship missed expectations.

Watch Dogs 3 could launch in 2019 and take the high-stakes hacktivism outside of the United States.

Ubisoft's next big Watch Dogs sequel will launch sometime this year and be set in London, England, according to an admittedly shaky rumor from an anonymous 4Chan poster. Per usual, the poster outlines some Watch Dogs 3 possibilities including combat weaponry--knives and handguns are in, but assault rifles may be absent--and a bigger focus on hacking the city's advanced tech. This implies London will be much more dynamic than San Francisco's immensely enjoyable hacking opportunities.

If accurate, this rumor poses some interesting possibilities. We could see the same kind of youthful stick-it-to-the-man spirit found in Watch Dogs 2 mixed with an explosive anarchical style straight out of London's 1970s punk era. Less emphasis on meme culture and more gritty and visceral street-wise action coupled with that Mr. Robot rebelliousness, all while tying in England's culture clashes.

Obsidian's big wacky sci-fi shooter The Outer Worlds may launch this August, if a Steam listing is accurate.

A bit ago The Outer World's Steam page was updated with an August 9, 2019 release date, which is a bit too specific to be a fake. The accident was quickly remedied and scrubbed, replaced with the nebulous 2019 launch date, but not before SteamDB caught the change. The shooter, which is set in a new IP that inside sources told us in 2017 would be Obsidian's own answer to Fallout, incorporates many old-school Fallout-esque elements including traits, a quirky style and humorous bent, deeper RPG mechanics, and even a time-dilation mechanic similar to VATS.

An August launch for The Outer Worlds would put the indie squarely in Take-Two Interactive's Q3 window. This might be a problem. The publisher always releases its huge NBA 2K annualized sports games in September, followed up with a possible AAA game in the Q4 holiday quarter. NBA 2K20 could take a bite out of The Outer Worlds' visibility...but we could argue Obsidian's game is niche and probably won't appeal to a mass audience anyway.

Capcom isn't about to give up on PC any time soon and plans to continue leveraging marketplaces like Steam to reach a wider audience.

PC ports of Japanese games have seen a marked increase over recent years. Bandai Namco, Koei Tecmo, Atlus, SEGA, and even Capcom have enjoyed success selling their games on PC and amassing more consistent earnings. Capcom in particular plans to keep this trend going, especially after it just made a killing from Monster Hunter: World's Steam port.

The news comes straight from Capcom President and COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto, who affirmed the publisher's strong commitment to PC in a recent corporate letter. "From the viewpoint of promoting digital strategy, PC platform expansion cannot be overlooked. The sales ratio of PC versions of our main titles have improved every year, and we will strive to further expand PC sales as an important platform."

While playing Anthem, you'll get very familiar with staring at loading screens. So why doesn't BioWare and EA make them more interesting?

Loading screens can be a boon or a bane. They can be a much-needed reprieve after an intense hours-long session or boss battle, or an incessant nuisance that constantly induces rage. Anthem falls into the ladder category. Practically everything you do in the online-only game triggers a rather drab and boring loading screen, even equipping new gear. Missions routinely have multiple loading zones and prompt those same boring, uninspired still images that break your immersion.

But what if Anthem had a neat little loading screen minigame to keep us engaged? Maybe a little pixellated side-scrolling javelin flyer where we have to shoot enemies and dodge incoming fire? Or just a small puzzler where we match symbols up and get various in-game rewards? Gaming is filled with examples of these little (but immensely impactful) features, from old-school Commodore 64 games like Skyline Attack to modern FIFA releases.

Like most games (especially online-only ones), Anthem was made for a specific purpose: to make money. But how it makes money is different than, say, Sony's blockbuster PS4 exclusives.

Based on the middling-to-lackluster reviews of BioWare's big new online-only game Anthem, there seems to be some confusion about what EA set out to achieve here. Anthem is ultimately molded around the engagement strategy that makes EA billions every year, which ultimately means it was built to make revenues first and be a great, groundbreaking game second. This point is unfortunately illustrated quite clearly through every facet of Anthem, from the light RPG and heavy loot mechanics that pull in separate directions to the story that seems to conflict with the game's basic scope.

In short, Anthem wasn't designed to be what most gamers consider a great title. We won't see any Horizon: Zero Dawn-level story arcs, or God of War cinematic-style matery; no, Anthem was made to be addicting first and everything else comes second. Action takes the forefront and interesting RPG elements are in the back. How good a game is wildly subjective, of course, and I don't aim to diminish BioWare's immensely hard work on the game. It's clear the team toiled tirelessly on every aspect of the project, but Anthem itself is still bound by the rules of engagement.

If you are strategy game fan and are hanging out for a new goliath strategy game to sink hours upon hours into, there is no doubt you are waiting for Microsoft's Age of Empires IV. So, here is everything that we know so far about the coming Age of Empires IV.

Back in August of 2017, Microsoft shook strategy game fans to the very core with the release of the announcement trailer for Age of Empires IV. It has been 14 years since the release of a new Age of Empires so its more than obvious that a new game in the series is overdue. What do we know about Age of Empires IV though? and when can we expect more information on the title or perhaps even an idea of when it will release?

Firstly, Age of Empires IV will be developed by Relic Entertainment. Relic are known for their work on the Company of Heroes games as well as the Dawn of War games. What age will Age of Empires IV be set in? Well, the only information we really have to off of in this regard is the announcement trailer which showcases concept art across a wide span of history. We see art from historical points in history such as Trojan soldiers, Rome with a 'Caeser'-like figure looking out over the city, a battle of Jerusalem, British Red coats, Native American Indians and a period in Japanese history.

Microsoft are bringing out the nostalgia in all PC gamers that are enjoyed Age of Empires as the company has teased that some fresh news will be released regarding the franchise during March's Inside Xbox livestream.

The news comes from the official Age of Empires Community Manager, Jennifer Godwin where she detailed 'update 8' for Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. More interestingly though, Godwin teased that Age of Empires will have its own segment on the Inside Xbox live stream planned for March, now what could that entail?

I have a few theories for what Microsoft are planning to announce, firstly they could be bringing Age of Empires: Definitive Edition to the Xbox since the console now has full mouse and keyboard support. This wouldn't be a bad idea either since I would image that there is many Xbox gamers out there that would love the accessibility of having a classic game like Age of Empires on their console.

Some new sales statistics have been released for Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and according to the data digital sales are dwindling compared to December.

While Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is undoubtedly a massive success, the title seems to be falling off sales wise since we have passed the holiday season. According to new digital sales data released from SuperData Arcade, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has dropped 83% in unit sales since December, 2018.

The website has reported that the sales of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate were closely tied to the Nintendo Switch hardware sales over the course of the holiday season. While digital unit sales for the game are mostly progressively going down, the in-game spending for the title has risen with more players grabbing the Fighters Pass for the coming DLC fighters Nintendo plan on releasing. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is currently and only available on the Nintendo Switch, for more information about the title visit the official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate website here.

Fortnite was unstoppable at one point but everything that goes up must come down, and the up was leading right up into December and now that down is in January and it all revolves around Fortnite's revenues being down by gigantic numbers.

According to the latest report from SuperData on the top grossing titles across the world, Fortnite lost the top spot on consoles to FIFA 19 and had Super Smash Bros. Ultimate nipping on its heels. SuperData reports that Fortnite revenue on all platforms combined declined by a huge 48% month-over-month, while noting that "sales are still up significantly year-over-year".

SuperData adds: "This comes after a peak month in December and points to an increasingly lumpy revenue profile heading into 2019". Looking at the numbers a little more, we see that Fortnite is #5 on the PC, losing out to Dungeon Fighter Online, League of Legends, Fantasy Westward Journey Online II, and CrossFire. Fortnite comes in at #5 while PUBG kicks off at #6, and then continues with World of Warcraft West, World of Tanks, Sims 4, and then DOTA 2.

Respawn launched Apex Legends with 8 characters (6 were free, 2 can be unlocked) but the developer was never going to stop there, with some datamining goodness teasing 11 new characters that should be launched across the next few months.

The 11 new characters sound interesting individually, with the leaks definitely referring to new characters and not new weapons. There are a few interesting names in the list, with some references to another EA property: Crysis. The new Apex Legends characters include Nomad and Prophet, both names familiar with Crysis fans from the trilogy of games. Hell, there's even some cryptocurrency lovin' in there with Apex Legends to soon receive a new character called Crypto.

Apex Legends' first season kicks off next month, so we should see developer Respawn Entertainment unveil the new characters very, very soon. Also remember that the Game Developers Conference is in a few weeks, where I'm sure Apex Legends will be a big part of the show at GDC 2019 this year - a surprising entry considering the game didn't even exist on gamers' radars until a few weeks ago.

Apex Legends is one of the hottest games on the market right now and it is seeing some pretty crazy fans plonking down serious money on loot boxes to get the ultra rare cosmetic items that have a less than 1% chance of dropping.

The biggest case of this would have to be Cole, a 24-year-old gamer who spent $500 in order to unlock 500 loot boxes on the pursuit of getting said ultra rare items. Cole spoke with Kotaku about the deal, saying that before playing Apex Legends he was playing Fortnite, so he's no stranger to wanting cosmetic items in his games, and is willing to pay for it.

Cole said: "These games didn't tempt me into ludicrous spending. In my many hours in both games I probably spent less than $30. I've never had much luck when it comes to loot boxes and despite wanting the items inside, I knew the maths behind it and wasn't going to throw my money around chasing the carrot on a stick".

At the start of the month I reported on a newly-surfaced patent that suggested Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 would be backwards compatible with PS1/PS2/PS3/PS4 games, and here we are again with a new patent that was filed yesterday and is registered to Sony Interactive Entertainment.

PlayStation hardware architect Mark Cerny has his name attached to the patent as an inventor, and should be leading the PS5 charge. The new patent is titled "Simulation of legacy bus operation for backward compatibility" and was registered alongside the "CPUID impersonating method" that we reported on earlier this month.

With these patents, we can only guess that Sony will have backwards compatibility as a huge feature on the PlayStation 5. If the PS5 can 'emulate' previous-gen PlayStation consoles, it would open up playing thousands of PlayStation games from all generations. Not only that but the previous post I wrote on the PS5 backwards compatibility patents teased the SRGAN process that would see "remastering by emulation" that would upscale SH/HD games to 4K using AI technology.

Microsoft is set to have one of, if not its biggest E3 ever this year where we should be introduced to a couple of next-gen Xbox consoles that will be released in 2020. We won't just find ourselves drooling over next-gen Xbox consoles, but also next-gen games that will launch alongside the beefed up consoles.

One of these games should be the new Halo Infinite, which will roll out with a brand new engine and according to Brad Sams, will have "more RPG elements than prior versions of the series". The last news we heard about Halo Infinite was that it would be a launch title for the next generation Xbox, and this is something we should expect to be unveiled and announced during E3 2019 in June.

Sams added: "Plans around the event are still coming together but the company is starting to lock-down the announcements for the keynote. Seeing as the event is still about four months away, the company could change plans and alter their keynote but for now, expect to hear more about the plans for Scarlett family of devices at E3 2019".

Bethesda could be planning a Fallout 3 remaster for current-gen consoles similar to Skyrim: Special Edition, complete with mod support and Creation Club integration.

Bethesda just listed a new mystery game on Amazon. Of course the listing has no actual information other than Bethesda's name (the ASIN didn't reveal much either), but there's a teaser trailer that looks very familiar. The footage is just like the classic film countdown reels from the Fallout franchise--all that's missing is those booming violins.

It could be something else though. Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax Media recently filed a trademark for a game called Deathloop, which we guessed was either a horror game or maybe a kind of weird roguelike where players get as far as they can before dying. ZeniMax is also making a brand new MMORPG set in an original IP, and maybe the new listing has something to do with it.

Fallout 76 may not be the game it should (or could) be just yet, but it's come a long way since launch. The game's journey is far from over and Bethesda plans to roll out a ton of new content throughout this year.

The online-only disaster that was Fallout 76 at launch has morphed into something that more resembles a competent service game (which it totally wasn't at launch). There's still a lot of hiccups, and Bethesda has a lot more work to do, but things are moving along. The studio isn't giving up on their multiplayer Fallout game.

Today Bethesda announced a big roadmap for their experimental online game that sees considerable expansions planned for 2019. Fallout 76 is set to get three major content updates called Wild Appalachia, Nuclear Winter, and Wastelanders, each of which brings new things like modes, quests, loot and features. These expansions will be totally free, and will release across Spring, Summer, and Fall.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson makes a lot of money. We're talking tens of millions of dollars every year, or hundreds of times more than its 9,300 employees make. As developers toil over projects and pay a very real human cost, publisher CEOs are raking in tons of cash.

According to a new report from financial firm As You Sow that outlines the Top Most Overpaid CEOs of 2019, video game CEOs like Bobby Kotick (Activision) and Andrew Wilson (EA) are making a killing as their respective companies slay jobs and restructure business models.

Electronic Arts' Andrew Wilson is among the highest-paid CEOs on the list, let alone in the games industry. In the same year EA talked about carefully weighing their investments, restructuring their business, and cancelled Star Wars games, Wilson earned $35.7 million or about 371 times more than the average Electronic Arts employee. About 97% of EA's shareholders agreed with this payout, which is calculated as an excess of over $19 million.

A modder has brought to life the one and only 'Shaggy' in Bandai Namco's JUMP FORCE through a brand new mod. The hungry mystery solving icon goes head-to-head against the amine universes strongest.

The release of Bandai Namco's JUMP FORCE has hit the fighting game community with some questionable poise. Some players claiming the title is barely finished and needs considerable work, others just enjoy the simplicity of having anime characters from different series' beating each-other up. I suppose it really comes down to the saying of 'different strokes for different folks'. I think what most members of the fighting game community can agree upon is the inclusion of Scooby-Doo's 'Shaggy' in any fighting game. We simply just don't care, we want a playable Shaggy and we want to be able to kick butt with him as well, now that is possible.

Above you will find a video from BeatzYT3 who has modded Shaggy into JUMP FORCE, taking the moveset of Vegeta and even keeping his gloves. BeatzYT3 has done an absolutely fantastic job with the character animation for Shaggy and even adding some voice lines for players to enjoy. What can be pointed out is that Shaggy's has zero facial expressions while beating up his opponent, this is due to BeatzYT3 not knowing this part of the modding process but I'm sure will be updated as more of the process if figured out. It should be noted that PC owners of JUMP FORCE will be the only owners able to play this mod since it has be downloaded and installed into the games file directory.

We know that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's first fighter that is apart of the 'Fighter Pass' will be arriving with a unique stage to complement the fighter, but what would the stage be called for Joker? Mementos?

All Super Smash Bros. Ultimate players are keen to see Persona 5's 'Joker', the first fighter in Nintendo's 'Fighter Pass' coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. While we are still a few months out from the release of 'Joker', data miners have not wasted time in diving into Smash's updated system files to try and find a piece of information regarding the coming fighter. Dr.HyperCake is one of these data miners, and he claims to have come across Joker's stage name that is planned to be arriving with the fighter.

According to Dr.HyperCake, "Digging through LVD files in Ultimate, and I found "Jack_Menentoes_" lying around amongst the strings. The format of this string matches stage name strings in ui_stage_db ("[Series]_[Stage]"), and Joker's internal name is "jack". Mementos stage confirmed?" Dr.HyperCake is claiming that the file "Jack Mememtos" is the title of the DLC stage coming. This would make sense considering that there is a stage within Joker's Persona 5 called 'mementos'. Nintendo confirmed that 'Joker' would be arriving to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate owners who picked up the 'Fighters Pass' "before the end of April".