Gaming - Page 752

Putting it lightly would be saying that ArenaNet and more specifically the player-base around Guild Wars 2 was struggling. Now the company is preparing for job layoffs and company restructuring.

I'll first start off by saying that Guild Wars 2 was an absolutely incredible game when I was playing, being an avid MMO fan and having a considerable amount of experience in different types of MMO's, I can honestly say that game hit almost every single category of 'fun' and 'rewarding' for me. Except one. End game content. The topic of Guild War 2's end-game content being allegedly 'lackluster' is purely a subjective interpretation of the game. For me personally I didn't feel as there was enough reward for me to keep playing, it felt repetitive and resulted in me being bored with the experience despite its amazing qualities.

I have seen this very same point argued for the soul reason of Guild War 2's downfall player-base wise, and ultimately the slow downfall of ArenaNet which we are seeing now. According to Kotaku, Songyee Yoon, the CEO publisher NCSoft who owns ArenaNet sent out an email to employee's of ArenaNet. It read; "Our live game business revenue is declining as our franchises age, delays in development on PC and mobile have created further drains against our revenue projects, while our operating costs in the west have increased. Where we are is not sustainable, and is not going to set us up for future success."

We are starting to see quite a potentially valuable relationship form between two leading gaming companies in their respective fields, Nintendo and Microsoft. But what if Microsoft brought their games to the world of portability?

Rumors have been flying around suggesting that Nintendo are Microsoft are currently planning on bringing the quite popular Xbox Games Pass to the Nintendo Switch. While there isn't any solidifying evidence to go off of, we do have many "inside sources" saying that there is strong on-going discussion about the matter currently being conducted. With titles such as Microsoft's Minecraft and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice coming to, or already arrived on the Nintendo Switch, many people have said that Microsoft are gearing up to bring their Xbox Games Pass to the portable console in the form of cloud service.

Some of these people making these claims are Direct-Feed Games, the above video mentions the fact that Microsoft have been very vocal about their ambition to bring the Xbox Games Pass to as many platforms. There is no doubt that the Nintendo Switch would be a perfect candidate for this, but how would they do it? Direct-Feed Games says that Microsoft will bring Games Pass to the Switch via a downloadable app that will allow support for Project Xcloud. The app would act as a conduit to both the Xbox Games Pass and the future Project Xcloud. Project Xcloud will allow for games to be streamed from the Xbox cloud to the Switch seamlessly. This type of game streaming has already been done for Switch titles such as; Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Blizzard has just teased what could turn out to be the 30th hero in Overwatch, with a post on the official blog of the game teasing some in-game lore, referencing a strike team that was sent after an unknown threat.

In the teaser embedded above, an in-universe declassified report written by Captain Cuerva says there was an encounter with 'Baptiste'. The log says that a strike team was sent down to retrieve or kill Jean-Baptiste Augustin adding that "no one leaves Talon". Cuerva writes in the report: "I know better than to underestimate Baptiste. I helped train him myself, and he was one of our best. I've never known a medic to be such a good shot, and his adaptability to new situations is a rare talent. All of us have seen our fair share of conflict, but Baptiste was built to survive. I swear he has the Devil's own luck".

I'm hoping that the 30th hero is another healer, as there is a big hole in the amount of powerful healers in Overwatch right now. In the full report from Cuerva, he teases: "I know better than to underestimate Baptiste. I helped train him myself, and he was one of our best. I've never known a medic to be such a good shot, and his adaptability to new situations is a rare talent. All of us have seen our fair share of conflict, but Baptiste was built to survive. I swear he has the Devil's own luck".

After crunching for two games in a row, 343i will take Halo: Infinite's development more slowly as it prepares a new engine and toolset pipeline.

In a recent interview with USGamer, 343 Industries head Bonnie Ross affirmed the studio's first two Halo games took a toll on its team. Halo 4 demanded immense crunch as 343i had to prove itself worth of the franchise and keep the Halo flame going with new content. Artists and designers were hit hardest by this crunch, as they had to feed assets and content into a complex engine. But after Halo 4, Ross promised the team things would be easier with the next game. More tools would be in place to expedite the process.

That didn't happen, and 343i was hit with even more crunch to ship Halo 5. The project just kept getting bigger and bigger despite missing modes like Firefight at launch; the game was a technical achievement given the then-current Xbox One's limited hardware. Finally having made two sequels in a row with expanded post-release content rollouts, the team was finally ready for that easier road Ross promised.

Reggie Fils-Aime is retiring as President of Nintendo of America, and Bowser is taking over. No...not that Bowser. Company exec Doug Bowser.

Nintendo today announced that Reggie Fils-Aime, the beloved hypeman and leader who gave us the legendary phrase "My body is ready!", is stepping down as president of its American branch. Following his 15 years of strong leadership, Fils-Aime will step down shortly after Nintendo starts its new fiscal year in April.

"Nintendo owns a part of my heart forever," Fils-Aime said in the press release. "It's a part that is filled with gratitude - for the incredibly talented people I've worked with, for the opportunity to represent such a wonderful brand, and most of all, to feel like a member of the world's most positive and enduring gamer community. As I look forward to departing in both good health and good humor, this is not 'game over' for me, but instead 'leveling up' to more time with my wife, family and friends."

Dataminers have scoured the new Apex Legends update for tidbits, uncovering some interesting new modes and the possible return of parkour mechanics and titan mech suits.

Respawn's massively popular 60-player battle royale FPS sensation may become a lot more like its forebear Titanfall. According to info found by dataminers in Apex Legends' new update, the game is getting a new Classic mode that should unleash fresh havoc and bring back Titanfall-esque FPS action. Classic seems to include some familiar elements like double-jump thrusting via jumpkit items and Titanfall's beloved wall-running.

Some of the files also mention titans, hinting that mechs will return at some point. Respawn is likely testing the mechanics in a new developer-only mode and if hulking titan mechs do smash the scene, they should do so in a special gametype.

Paradox Interactive and Microsoft have teamed up to bring the first ever PC mods to consoles, introducing 'Paradox Mods' to the Xbox One.

PC gamers now have an avenue of sharing there mods with console gamers on the Xbox One. Paradox Interactive and Microsoft have created 'Paradox Mods', a platform for PC modders to share their work with Xbox One users and the first game to support the new platform is 'Surviving Mars'. 'Surviving Mars' is a survival strategy simulator based on Mars, players will experience what life is like on the Red Planet by being required to build infrastructure to ensure the survival of your colonizers.

On the official Xbox website, Microsoft and Paradox Interactive have selected some mods to showcase to players. Additions such as the 'Forest Greenhouse' allows for users that download it to produce automated oxygen for your civilization. There is also the 'Martian Car Wash', which is exactly what it sounds like, a car wash for your dust covered Mars vehicles and plenty more additions. Surviving Mars is very first game to support 'Paradox Mods', I'm sure as the platform develops there will be more games added to the new service. If you would to check out the official announcement, visit this link here.

There has been rumblings of OVERKILL's The Walking Dead being canceled on consoles, but now the publisher '505 Games' can confirm that the title is in-fact not canceled despite it users receiving refunds.

Back in 2018 we saw the epic failure of OVERKILL's The Walking Dead, with a complete financial loss due to the games lackluster quality in terms of numerous bugs, clunkiness and just an overall disappointing experience. Since the title has only been released on the PC, many console fans are still waiting to receive their pre-orders. Some users have reported that Sony are re-funding users the pre-order amount which has led to users believing that the title has been canceled, yet that is not true.

505 Games, the other publisher to the OVERKILL's The Walking Dead has come out on their official Twitter to announce that the console version of the game is NOT canceled despite the rampant rumors and has instead just been delayed. The post reads; "We just wanted to clear the position on the OVERKILL's The Walking Dead on console and confirm that the game has not been canceled, purely postponed whilst development is on-going. We will share further news as soon as possible."

To celebrate the anniversary of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, Microsoft are debuting a brand new update to the Definitive Edition and have also teased future announcements.

Microsoft has taken to their official Age of Empires website to announce a brand new massive update for the Definitive Edition. The update will add some brand new features such as; Automatic farm reseeding, mixed unit queues, mixed tech queues, resolution option for full screen mode and fallen units now decay over time.

There was also updates to unit behavior in the way of navigation for unit pathing, improvements to targeting behavior and much more. Microsoft also have done some work to the AI features of the game with units now picking their targets better, ability to hunt elephants and just general improvements all round. Most interestingly though, Microsoft teases that there will be some "very exciting announcements!" on the Inside Xbox livestream in March. Check that out here.

Valve have realized the grim truth of their video content service on Steam and now the company has now made an official statement saying their are planning to "refocus" what content is seen on their service.

In a brand new statement onto the Steam blog, Valve have addressed the video content side of their service. While the original thought behind the Video section was to expand Steams horizons into movies, documentaries etc, the idea wasn't well-received by the community. According to the blog post by Valve, after reviewing the traffic for what users were watching in the video section it became clear to them that they needed to "refocus" their efforts into what content is seen.

The decision that was finalized by Valve was that "over the coming weeks a number of non-gaming videos will be retired and will no longer be available for purchase." The content that will be seen in the video section will now be "directly related to gaming or, is accessory content for games or software sold on Steam." Ultimately Valve have "retired the Video section of the Steam Store menu with an expectation that video content is discovered via the associated game or software store page, or through search, user tags, recommendations, etc." It should be noted that all previously purchased video content will still be available to watch through Steam after the discontinuing.

In celebration of Stunlock Studios' MOBA and battle royale combination, Battlerite Royale moving out of Steam Early Access the developer is also releasing a massive patch for the game.

Stunlock Studios have issued out an official press release to detail the changes that will be coming within the patch. The press release says that three brand new champions will be added to the game; Oldur, Taya and Pearl. Each of the champions mentioned will be completely unique from on another, Older will be able to bend time and space around him, Taya will have the ability to summon wind and create tornados, Pearl will be able to use the power of the ocean and currents.

Stunlock Studios will also be adding what is called a "Battle Pass" system which can offer potential players a Free Pass and then if they are interested, a Premium Pass for some juicy cosmetic upgrades. Johan Ilves, Marketing Director at Stunlock Studios gave a statement regarding the announcement; "We know that our community has been looking forward to the free-to-play launch of Battlerite Royale for months and we are thrilled that this day has finally arrived. Today we are also releasing the BIG PATCH so both Arena and Royale players can expect lots of new features, taking the Battlerite universe to the next level."

If you haven't heard of SIGIL or John Romero or even Daikatana, then you are missing out. John Romero is one of the original developers behind DOOM at id Software, breaking away from the developer to work on Daikatana (and that worked out so well) but is now working on something new: SIGIL.

Romero announced SIGIL last year which acts as a follow-up to DOOM, arriving as a free mod that will pack some paid options for diehard fans of the franchise. Romero has just announced that SIGIL is being delayed slightly, needing more time to work on it which means it has been delayed until April.

Romero said on his own blog: "I just wanted to update you on SIGIL. There were a few snags in production trying to make sure everything is top-notch for fans! I just wanted to let everyone who purchased either the Big Box or the Beast Box know that it is now looking like it will ship sometime in April. Thank you for your patience, and I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. This also means the free version of SIGIL will have to wait until after the boxes are in the hands of customers".

Apex Legends exploded onto the gaming scene less than two weeks ago now and while it has racked up millions of concurrent users, 25 million users in its first week, two updates that fix various issues, and Respawn banning over 16,000 cheaters... there's other news that'll surprise you.

The success of Apex Legends has seen an unexpected spike in sales of VR game Apex Construct, with its similar name to Respawn's battle royale shooter seeing sales spike on Steam by over 4000%. Apex Construct developer Fast Travel Games took to Reddit, with Andreas Juluisson of the developer saying: "we sold more units of Apex Constuct in China the last seven days than during all of 2018".

Apex Legends isn't even on Steam so gamers are getting super confused and seeing just 'Apex' in the title and smashing the 'buy' button. The developer has said that most gamers will realize their mistakes and request a refund, adding that "our books look pretty good at the moment". Apex Construct is receiving some negative flak because of it, with Juliusson adding: "Chinese buyers who feel they have been scanned, even though we have done nothing wrong!".

Payday 2, a six-year old game, made nearly as much money as Starbreeze's new The Walking Dead shooter in Q4.

Overkill's The Walking Dead shooter is a flop. We already knew the game's disastrously low performance was a major factor in Starbreeze not only restructuring its company but also filing for Swedish bankruptcy. How bad did the game disappoint, though? According to the latest financials from Starbreeze, The Walking Dead sold less than 100K copies on PC.

The publisher reports that it made 82.5 million SEK (about $8.87 million in current rates) in net sales during the Q4 season, down 25% year-over-year. Overkill's The Walking Dead made 34.1 million SEK of total sales earnings, or about $3.66 million. A quick bit of division shows that if The Walking Dead made $3.66 million in total at $59.99 per sale, it sold about 61,000 copies on Steam.

Square Enix has address the absolute flop of Just Cause 4, admitting that the sales for the title were much less than the company first anticipated.

During the Square Enix financial results briefing for Q3 FY2019, the company addressed the sales of some of their staple franchise releases; Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Just Cause 4. While Shadow of the Tomb Raider had an average of positive reviews, much like Just Cause 4 it was still a disappointment sales wise for Square Enix.

A question was posed to Square Enix regarding their medium-term target for FY2020/3 of 40-50 billion yen. The question was in response to the company admitting the disappointment in sales of both the previously mentioned titles, "Do the sales thus far of "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" and "Just Cause 4" change your outlook for additional sales in FY2020/3? If so, does that impact your medium-term target for operating income of 40-50 billion yen in FY2020/3?"

Paradox Interactive, the publisher well-known for its participation in strategy games has debuted a trailer for a new coming release, Age of Wonders: Planetfall.

The above story and pre-order trailer has been released onto the official Paradox Interactive YouTube Channel and starts off with an epic cutscene of our heroes landing on a planet. Once we arrived the soldiers are ambushed by other inhabitants of the planet, each of the factions seen in the story trailer are playable and total "six unique factions".

Age of Wonders: Planetfall takes all the aspects strategy game fans know and love from the previous Age of Wonders games and throws them into an epic sci-fi setting. Players will be able to enjoy the "militant Vanguard to the dinosaur-riding Amazons and the cyborg-zombies of the Assembly". While also learning to "fight, build, negotiate and technologically advance your way to utopia in a deep single player campaign, on random skirmish maps, and against friends in multiplayer."

Bigben Interactive and Eko Software have released a new video for Warhammer: Chaosabane, the Dwarf Slayer - Bragi Axebiter.

A new trailer for Warhammer: Chaosbane has been released showing off the sheer strength and might of the Dwarf Slayer. Dwarf Slayers are dwarves (obviously) that have taken an oath of the Slayer by vowing to cleanse his honour by dying epic and heroically in battle against a enemy of high stature. We are introduced to the Dwarf Slayer Bragi Axebiter who takes us through each of his strengths while in combat.

Players will be able to utilize Axebiters mobility with the angry Dwarf throwing his axe into an enemy and the carnage beginning as soon as the Dwarf starts swinging. Axebiter also has the ability to spin with his axes in hand dealing massive area-of-effect damage to everyone around him. Warhammer: Chaosbane is planned for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on June 4th, 2019. For more information, visit the official Steam page here.

A new trailer for FromSoftware's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has been released, it teases one of the games many bosses and gives players a sneak peak at what these types of encounters will look like.

The above video has been released onto the official PlayStation YouTube Channel and gives us a very quick look at 'Lady Butterfly'. Before I jump into the breakdown of Lady Butterfly I would advise you to not watch the above video if you desire to keep all the bosses in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice as a surprise.

Lady Butterfly has quite a unique habitat and it seems that when players encounter her they will be fighting in a burning building. We see glimpses of Lady Butterfly jumping from tight rope to tight rope, I would assume players will also be able to do this to utilize spacing techniques from the boss as she seems very fast. There is also the touch of the violin being played in the background, which I think perfectly contrasts to what the player is about to face off against.

While most fathers would go out and buy their daughters a new phone, or some clothes they sought after for a graduation present. Other fathers make custom gaming related presents mixed with life-lessons.

The above image comes from Reddit user Tg8402, who custom made the Zelda themed present for his daughter to celebrate her graduation. Tg8402 even gave a little bit of backstory on the project after it picked up major traction in the /r/Zelda subreddit. "I introduced her to Zelda when she was 6 and she fell in love. Spent hours upon hours on Breath of the Wild which was the first game we got to experience together. I always told her that she was just like Link and just because you can't do something now doesn't mean you never can, you just weren't ready yet."

The meaning behind the gift continued; "But as time goes by you'll collect more hearts and more items along the way to help you face your obstacles. And one day you'll find your master sword and be ready to face your Ganon. I'm giving this to her for her graduation in a couple months. It's white gold and there's a little diamond in the middle. I hope she likes it." What an incredible gift combined with an even better life-lesson to bestow on the daughter that already loves Zelda and Link. The reddit user also details how he went about making the pendant, so if you are interested in replicating it for personal or gift use, check out this link here for a description on how it was done.

Google have just recently teased that they could be jumping into the gaming market as the massive company will be making an appearance at this years Game Developers Conference. What for though?

Google has just added a keynote to the schedule for this years Game Developers Conference, the company is rumored to be gearing up for the reveal of their new game streaming service which comes under the codename 'Yeti', or 'Project Stream'. Google's invitation to GDC was more than simple, yet extremely effective. The invitation had a light at the end of a hallway that simply read "gather around".

If Google are planning on announcing their new game streaming service, GDC would be the perfect place to do it considering all of the big game development studios are all present to bare-witness to it. If Google's presentation is incredible, they will no doubt get many game developers from the conference signing up to the service. While there is next-to-no official details about what Google are planning for GDC, all game developers and gamers alike will have their eyes on the company at 1PM Eastern, March 19th.