Gaming - Page 758

Take-Two Interactive says 2K's big new game is still set for a FY2020 launch, and it's probably Borderlands 3.

While Take-Two nor 2K Games have officially announced Borderlands 3, Gearbox's Randy Pitchford confirmed the game has been in active development since 2016. Pitchford even showed Borderlands 3 prototype footage at GDC 2017, discussing various lighting techniques and tools being used in Unreal Engine 4 to make the game. Now we know the game will launch sometime in 2019 or early 2020.

The only thing we've heard from 2K parent company Take-Two is a nebulous release teaser, which has been re-affirmed in recent earnings filings. "In addition, the unannounced title from one of 2K's biggest and most beloved franchise remains on track for launch during fiscal 2020. 2K will have more to share in the coming months," Take-Two Interactive President Karl Slatoff said in the Fiscal Q3'19 earnings call.

EA's visibility into the future is quite far, and it sees new IPs popping up in the coming years.

Games industry titan EA recently saw its growth streak disrupted by disappointing sales, game delays, and subscription misses. The company missed its Fiscal Q3'19 guidance by as much as $116 million on the backs of lower than expected Battlefield V sales. EA stock has since fallen more than 13%. In response to these disappointing results, EA says it will make "hard decisions" about its future investments, hinting game cancellations and key business operation shifts are in order. Typically when this happens games-makers move their focus on sure-fire, safer bets and stay in established franchises like Battlefield.

But even as the publisher opens its new "Creative Council," which advises in future game development, marketing, and tactical business decisions, EA isn't giving up on new IPs. Company CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed EA's new IP pipeline is quite robust and we may even see totally new franchises launch during its Fiscal Year 2020 timeline.

Red Dead Redemption 2 continues its juggernaut sales spree, and should make strong revenues over time with its online mode.

Rockstar's latest Red Dead Redemption 2 Western opus has sold-in (shipped) more than 23 million copies across the globe, Take-Two Interactive confirmed In its latest Fiscal Q3'19 earnings report. This feat is doubly impressive given RDR2 is only available on consoles and has yet to launch on PC (the publisher still won't confirm a port). The game, which is hailed as one of the most realistic and impressive releases of this generation, is the biggest weekend retail seller and made over $700 million in three days time.

"According to The NPD Group, based on combined physical and digital sales in the U.S., Red Dead Redemption 2 was the best-selling video game of 2018. To date, Red Dead Redemption 2 has sold-in more than 23 million units worldwide," Take-Two wrote in the earnings release.

EA just had a hard quarter. Thanks to strategic moves like game delays, the company missed its Fiscal Q3'19 earnings forecasts by tens of millions of dollars. Battlefield V sold 7.3 million copies, 1 million less than EA had hoped, and failed to spark Origin Access subscriptions. EA says this was because Battlefield V's unfortunate November release timing. Mobile revenues also dropped by 22%. These numbers, which sparked a 12% stock plummet, have shaken EA a bit and the publisher says it must re-evaluate its game plan. In short we could see more cancellations, delays, and a stronger focus on live services as EA focuses more on sure-fire bets.

During EA's Fiscal Year Q3'19 earnings, company CEO Andew Wilson revealed some interesting new things about how the publisher operates. Wilson says EA now has a "Creative Council" that helps determine which projects are worth investing in, and affirms more organizational changes will come. This comes at a time when EA has cancelled multiple Star Wars games, including Visceral's Project Ragtag, a carry-over from 2012's Star Wars 1313, and the open-world Project Orca game from EA Vancouver, which was a carry-over from Ragtag. EA also shut down Visceral Games after cancelling the ambitious action-adventure game that would've basically been Star Wars Uncharted. Future EA games and even its future game streaming subscription plan could face similar shifts, cancellations, and changes.

"We are a learning organization. Over the last six months, we've made organizational changes to shape our teams against our priorities for the future," Wilson said in the earnings call.

Just like clockwork, Nintendo have announced two new titles for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers, the Big N will be adding Super Mario Bros. 2 and Kirby's Adventure.

Last month, Nintendo added Blaster Master and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link to the NES library. This month we have Super Mario Bros. 2 and Kirby's Adventure being added to the NES library of games, the games will be available from February 13th.

For users that don't yet have Nintendo Switch Online, the membership only costs $4 USD a month, or $8 USD for three months or a $20 USD yearly payment. Families that have multiple Nintendo Switch's in the household will be able to utilize Family Membership, the cost comes in at $35 USD and grants access to online for up to eight Nintendo Account members. If you are interested in games such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate or Mario Kart 8 Ultimate, Nintendo Switch Online will be required for online play, visit the official Nintendo website for more information here.

NetherRealm Studios has confirmed two characters for the coming Mortal Kombat 11, players will be able to speed into the battle with Kabal, and also be able to enjoy the returning character D'Vorah.

During the first Kombat Kast, a livestream that is based around Mortal Kombat, co-creator and director at NetherRealm Studios, Ed Boon teased fans with the announcement of these two characters. Boon showcased the above gameplay video of Kabal to fans viewing the live stream, then video was then uploaded to official Mortal Kombat YouTube Channel for the publics pleasure. We can see Kabal doing what he does best, speeding through his enemies and using his hookswords to disembody each and every part of whoever is standing in his way.

We also get a great display of Kabal's grab combo's, range spacing saw blades, upper cuts, vital spot breaks and an incredibly gory fatality. We see Kabal grab his victim and run at extreme speeds while dragging his opponent along the ground, Kabal then throws the opponent forward only to appear on the receiving end ready to slice them in half with his hook sword. Ed Boon also confirms that D'Vorah who debuted in Mortal Kombat X would also be returning for Mortal Kombat 11, there was no gameplay shown of her though. Mortal Kombat 11 will be released onto the Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One and PS4 on April 23rd, 2019.

Rare are attempting to get as many potential pirates and captains as they can onto Sea of Thieves, as the developer and publisher has announced that the title will be going free-to-play for a limited amount of time.

Existing players of Sea of Thieves will be able to invite friends who don't own a copy, those friends will be able to enjoy the high seas with their fellow pirates for a whole week starting February 6th and ending on February 13th. Players that own a physical copy, digital copy or are using Xbox Games Pass to enjoy Sea of Thieves will eligible to utilize this recommending a friend option, so no one is going to be missing out.

If you would like to grab some codes for some of your friends that were a little undecided on whether they want to pick up a copy of Sea of Thieves, head over to the Sea of Thieves website and find the 'friends-play-free' open at the top of the page, a direct link can be found here. Once you are on that page the website will prompt you with your Microsoft account details. Once you are logged in you will be gifted with your three friends codes which can you can send along to your friends to begin your voyage. Sea of Thieves is available on the Xbox One and PC now.

If you are a Disney fan and like a bit of action along with some of your favourite childhood characters then Kingdom Hearts III may just be your best cup of tea.

Square Enix has taken to the official Twitter account of Disney's Kingdom Hearts to announce that their recently released Kingdom Hearts III has made it to over 5 million gamers. If you are unsure what Kingdom Hearts is exactly, the Square Enix developed title is based around crossovers from the Disney and Final Fantasy. Each of the characters play a decently large part in the story and many of them are viewed as beloved childhood characters. So if you enjoy a bit of action with an awesome story alongside some characters that you may of watched in movies as children, then Kingdom III may be worth your attention.

The celebrations from Square Enix come in the form of "thank you" to each player who picked up their own copy of Kingdom Hearts III. On a side note - I would also expect due to the nostalgia surrounding the Kingdom Hearts franchise, and not to mention the solid story that it has, that these sales numbers will increase much further beyond 5 million. The game has only been out 8 days and it has managed to reach the 5 million mark making it the fastest-selling game in the Kingdom Hearts franchise. I will be very interested to see what the sales statistics are like at the month mark. Kingdom Hearts III is currently available for the Xbox One and PS4.

Deep Silver might be in Deep Sh*t over the recent explosion of crap regarding Metro Exodus and its move to the Epic Game Store, but now the team is teasing the game and its optimizations on Microsoft's beefed-up Xbox One X console. You can check out the new 'Artyom's Nightmare' trailer below:

In the latest episode of Inside Xbox, Huw Beynon from Deep Silver explained that Metro Exodus will be running at native 4K on the Xbox One X, as well as full HDR and Dolby Atmos support. The developer confirmed this last year, with the Xbox One X version of Metro Exodus running at native 4K and locked at 30FPS. The new trailer takes an interesting stylized look at the game, and almost feels like it is pieced together in a way never-before-seen in this way with Metro.

Metro Exodus drops on February 15 on the PC, Xbox One and PS4 with the PC version exclusive to the Epic Games Store until 2020 while pre-orders on Steam will still continue to work on Steam.

EA is on a roll right now with the just-released and still exploding Apex Legends from Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment, with the new free-to-play battle royale shooter to be joined in its ranks at EA with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order later this year, and some surprises.

During EA's recent financial results call for its third fiscal quarter 2018, that a new Need for Speed game in development. We can expect that Ghost Games will once again get knuckles deep in coding the new game, which we should expect to roll out with the EA DICE graphics engine, Frostbite. Frostbite might have started out powering Battlefield games, but now that EA owns DICE we are seeing Frostbite powering countless games.

EA COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen explained: "FIFA stands out as a robust franchise through a tumultuous year in the video game industry. Elsewhere in the business, we're making adjustments to improve execution and we're refocusing R&D. Looking forward, we're delighted to launch Anthem, our new IP, to grow Apex Legends and related Titanfall experiences, to deliver new Plants vs. Zombies and Need for Speed titles, and to add Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order to our sports titles in the fall".

Buying a Nintendo Switch just for Zelda: Breath of the Wild is so worth it, but now with the latest version of Cemu (v1.15.2) you can run Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the right hardware that is, at 4K and between 60-100FPS.

Cemu has been updated to v1.15.2 and has boosted performance to a bunch of titles, one of which includes Zelda: Breath of the Wild. BSoD Gaming has covered this with a gorgeous video showing BotW running at 4K and between 60-100FPS on an Intel Core i7-8700K and GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card. The new version of Cemu also adds improvements to the audio, but the big thing here is that "all areas of gameplay" in Zelda: Breath of the Wild can be cranked to 4K at 60-100FPS on the 8700K + GTX 1080 Ti combo.

The above video is a great run through on how to get Cemu 1.15.2 installed and configured to run games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild on your PC. Now we just need Nintendo to make games for the PC natively, especially when they look and run this smooth. Imagine what games would look like with true 4K textures and assets. Oh boy.

Apex Legends has already racked up 1 million players in its first day available, with Respawn Entertainment's new Titanfall-infused battle royale game also setting records on Twitch.

In the first few hours after Apex Legends launched it was the most-viewed game on Twitch with over 340,000 viewers and hitting a peak of 500,000 or so. This means that newcomer Apex Legends was beating out established Twitch regular games like Fortnite, Overwatch, League of Legends, DOTA 2, and World Of Warcraft. This is obviously day one, so we'll have to keep our eyes on viewership across all platforms in the coming weeks and months to see if Apex Legends has staying power with gamers.

Respawn hooked up with some of the biggest influencers, YouTubers and Twitch streamers in the world for the launch of Apex Legends, which seems to be paying off. It drove enough hype to the game to give it a huge launch in terms of downloads and players, as well as video views and streams.

EA misses its third quarter earnings forecast on heels of weaker Battlefield V performance and a sparse slate, causing stock to drop by over 10%.

In its recent Fiscal Q3'19 financials EA missed its revenue and sales targets by nearly $100 million. In the quarter, which company CEO Andrew Wilson called "difficult," EA earned $1.289 billion in net revenue and $1.609 billion in net sales, missing forecasts by $86 million and $116 million respectively. Company shares then plummeted by 12.69% in after-hours trading and shaved off billions from its valuation.

The main reason for the miss was Battlefield V, the only big game released in Q3, which underperformed to EA's expectations when put up against holiday games like Call of Duty Black Ops 4 and Red Dead Redemption 2. EA CFO Blake Jorgensen attributes Battlefield V's lower sales to being put "against heavily discounted competition," but gamer-wide controversy may have also played a significant role. EA made the decision to delay Battlefield V into the heart of Black Friday in November due to the pushback of multiple mobile games, Mr. Jorgensen said in the earnings call.

In an effort to help dig itself out of a big financial hole, Starbreeze Studios is doing what every major publisher does when they need fast money: make a mobile game based on its most successful IP.

Starbreeze is in trouble. The publisher's new The Walking Dead game sold poorly on PC, and coupled with years of mismanagement, caused the studio to file for bankruptcy. Now the company has teamed up with Universal to release a Payday mobile game.

The publisher delivers lots of contractual details in the announcement but doesn't really talk about the game, Payday: Crime War. Universal will give Starbreeze advance cash to make, operate, and maintain the game over five years, but Universal can pull out of the deal at any time if certain metrics aren't met.

UPDATE: EA CEO Andrew Wilson confirms a new premium Titanfall game is coming on 2019...but it'll have a twist. We're betting it's Titanfall VR.

"Respawn also plans to launch a premium game this year that is a new twist on the Titanfall universe. More to come on that in the months ahead," Wilson said in an earnings call.

Respawn's explosively popular Apex Legends F2P battle royale game isn't the end of the Titanfall series, and publisher EA teases more "experiences" set in the sci-fi universe.

Capcom records massive earnings on the backs of strong Monster Hunter: World performance.

New financial reports show that Japanese games-maker Capcom is doing very, very well. Monster Hunter: World has now sold more than 11 million copies and is a money-making machine for the company, whose Fiscal Q3'18 and nine-month revenues spiked from the MORPG's revenues and catalog sales. First we'll take a look at the nine-month earnings and then follow up with Q3'18.

In the nine-month period from April to December 2018, Capcom's total profits are up a whopping 108% year-over-year to 9.180 billion yen, driven by consistent strong sales and recurring revenues from catalog games and Monster Hunter: World. Operating income, or revenue generated after wages, development costs, and costs of goods sold are deducted, surged by 92% YoY to 13.461 billion yen. Net sales rose nearly 30% and raked in the lion's share of Capcom's gaming segment earnings with 61.270 billion yen.

Respawn may have done with a free-to-play battle royale game what EA wanted to do with Anthem.

Respawn's new Apex Legends 60-player battle royale game is already a success. The Titanfall-based shooter has only been out a day and is being hailed as a must-play FPS by gamers all over. Engagement is high thanks to its accessibility--it had over 1 million players in just 8 hours--and strong monetization could follow. But what about Anthem, EA's big new shared-worlds shooter?

Any live service game lives or dies based on engagement. Failed online games die because the playerbase dries up and no one's spending cash. Some, like Destiny 2, go through many changes and stave off death by reinventing themselves. Some games like Fallout 76 falter out of the gate due to mismanagement. Apex Legends' rising fame could pose a threat to Anthem's engagement simply because gamers could keep playing the F2P shooter instead of diving into a $64 premium game. All games compete with each other in this way (Epic Games' Fortnite, for example, competes with all others), but seldom do we see publishers smush together two live games that could disrupt one another in such a short span.

Respawn's big new free-to-play battle royale game launched today and it's already an engagement monster.

Apex Legends, the new 60-player battle royale shooter with Overwatch-like heroes, has amassed a massive 1 million unique players in just 8 hours. Respawn studio head Vince Zampella confirmed the news on Twitter: "I'm so overwhelmed right now. Apex Legends broke a million unique players in under 8 hours. Thank you so much for showing up and being part of this with Respawn you are amazing!!"

These are huge launch numbers for any F2P game and EA is likely quite happy about all the positive buzz floating around Apex Legends. Respawn's free-to-play gambit has paid off, and is actually built on the remnants Titanfall 3, which is no longer in development. The FPS has all the trademarks of a Titanfall game: slick action, fluid combat, and explosive visuals all wrapped around iconic characters with unique abilities.

Following a massive holiday sales spike, the Nintendo Switch is dominating earnings and driving sales revenues to strong heights.

After scanning Nintendo's latest nine-month financial earnings, the numbers told me something interesting (as they're wont to do). The Switch isn't just making most of the company's quarterly revenue, but a disproportionate amount of it, eclipsing other segments by quite a bit. Switch hardware and software earned 849 trillion yen in the nine month period from April to December 2018, or 85% of Nintendo's total net sales revenues of 997 trillion yen ($3.7 billion). The handheld-console hybrid made 88% of total dedicated video game segment sales.

Nine month Switch platform earnings are up 30% year-over-year, and Switch software and hardware only made 44% of last year's nine month sales revenues.

Disney debuted the newest installation into the Kingdom Hearts franchise last week, the long-awaited Kingdom Hearts III has knocked off Capcom's Resident Evil 2 Remake in the UK sales charts.

The release of Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts III and Resident Evil 2 are both undoubtedly a success. Both of these titles take first and second place for the biggest titles to release in 2019 so far. Now, GFK Chart-Track has released updated sales statistics for the UK digital sales, the charts are measured in for the 'Top 40 Entertainment Software' for the 'Week Ending 2nd of February 2019'.

According to the sales data, Kingdom Hearts III has knocked off the previously leading Resident Evil 2 Remake. The title has also topped the likes of Rockstar's Resident Evil 2, FIFA 19, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Grand Theft Auto V. It should be noted that these sales statistics only represent in-store sales. In other news about Resident Evil 2, check out the coming Netflix T.V show that has been planned here. There is also a new gameplay video for Kingdom Hearts III, check that out here.