Gaming - Page 765

Outside of deluxe editions at launch, Anthem's cosmetics will be the sole way to pay real money for extra content in the shared-worlds shooter. But this could ultimately change as the game matures.

To survive for years and years, service games typically go through many transformations throughout their lifecycles. Games-makers have to be willing to adapt and experiment when things go wrong, when publishers demand more cash, or when more funds are needed to actually upkeep the game and fund new content. Look at Final Fantasy XIV, which added piecemeal microtransactions after previously only being monetized with subscriptions. Or Destiny for that matter, which had separate instances of paid expansions with Eververse mTX layered on top. This could also happen to EA's massive new shared-worlds shooter Anthem.

Although BioWare says Anthem's extra content will be free, bigger expansions could end up costing money at some point in the game's future. This is especially true if the game's cosmetic-only monetization scheme doesn't take off or if engagement and player numbers falter. Battlefront II's controversy has taught EA a lot about changing up live service business models and a pivot would undoubtedly happen if Anthem saw a drop in specific metrics. Anthem represents one of the biggest projects EA has ever invested in: it's a multi-year wholly-owned IP that rivals Destiny in scope and offers the company millions in revenues if handled correctly.

Ubisoft's latest story trailer for The Division 2 gives us a look at the game's scope, themes, and overall feel.

Where the first Division game was a snowy emergency response to a terrorist attack, the Division 2 is more about the fallout of the virus attack and what comes next. The incident essentially fractured society and saw the fabric of our country break apart, leading to tribalism and gun-toting groups to rise up and force their command over key areas of the U.S., including the capital. Now Washington D.C. has devolved into anarchy and chaos, and it's up to Division agents to put out the fires and regain control.

The themes sound interesting enough, but the game's sun-lit world and setting don't really bring that same sense of urgency as the confused and wrecked icy streets of New York. There was something choking and claustrophobic about The Division 1's setting, a dark sense of foreboding as violence seemed to lie around every corner.

Today CI Games announced a new publishing label that will help smaller indie projects take off.

Following financial woes that saw multiple layoffs, Polish games-maker CI Games hopes to bounce back with a new publishing arm. Introducing United Label, a new publishing effort specifically aimed at independent games. This marks the second time CI Games shifted towards publishing; the company will instead publish Lords of the Fallen 2 and another dev, Defiant Studios, will make it.

"We are now delighted to start United Label, announcing the first 4 highly-promising games: Röki from Polygon Treehouse, Eldest Souls from Fallen Flag Studios, Tails of Iron from Odd Bug Studios and Horae from Lunaris Iris. United Label will pursue its expansion by gathering creative talents, offering a structure to success and building long-term relationships with developers," Marek Tyminski, CEO of CI Games, said in a press release.

It seems that Bandai Namco has made an oppsie, as fans of the developer have captured many screenshots of two new JUMP FORCE characters. Dragon Quest and JoJo characters have been leaked via Instagram advertising.

It seems the PR department of Bandai Namco isn't paying attention to where the game is at announcement wise, as fans that follow the gaming corporation on Instagram have spotted a mistake in the new JUMP FORCE advertising. Instagram users from all around the globe captured separate screenshots of Dai from Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai and Jotaro Kujo from the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure series.

To the fans advantage we now know that these characters will be included in the games final roster, so I'd expect some form of official announcement from Bandai soon. The announcement will most likely come in two seperate characters trailers showcasing each of the fighters in-game, I will be sure to follow up this post when an official announcement is made. JUMP FORCE will officially be launched on the 15th of February for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. If you want to pre-order JUMP FORCE, you might want to check out the collectors edition, more on that here.

Never played a Mortal Kombat game but you saw the latest trailer for the upcoming Mortal Kombat 11? Now is your chance to get some quick practice on some of the previous games as Steam has discounted the franchise.

Mortal Kombat 11 launches in April and in celebration of the build up to its debut Steam has discounted the franchise for any gamers that want to pick up the previous games ridiculously cheap. Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition has been discounted by 75% bringing the price to just $4.99. Mortal Kombat X has been discounted by 66% and is only $6.79 and finally Mortal Kombat XL is just $8.99.

If you are after some more news regarding the new upcoming Mortal Kombat 11, check out the images that have been leaked and the alleged 6 DLC fighters here. Mortal Kombat 11 will be launching on April 23, 2019 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. For more information regarding WB Games' latest installation in the fighting franchise, visit the official Mortal Kombat website here.

As we move closer to the release date of BioWare's Anthem we have gathered some details about the games upcoming demo and how it will differ from the final version of the game.

The news comes from BioWare's Executive Producer of Anthem, Mark Darrah. Darrah has taken to his personal Twitter account to reveal in dot point form the differences players should expect when playing the demo. According to Darrah, the demo will place gamers in in the middle and will not give any tutorials. The balancing for what can be expected of weapons and enemies is "super different" which also coincides with the fact that the demo has 6 weeks of less bug fixes.

Darrah doesn't stop there either, he continues and says that there will only be 1 story arc included within the demo and the "mission/stronghold/freeplay balance will be off a bit". Players should also expect a bit more refined PC controls. Darrah also says that some things within the demo are named differently to the final game. For players that have pre-ordered Anthem the demo will be available on January 25th, the general public will be able to play the demo on February 1st. The final release for Anthem will be on February 22nd and will be coming to the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Capcom should be quite happy with the progress they have made with Resident Evil 2 Remake, as it seems the classic game being remade from the ground up has provided to be quite popular. The 'one-shot' demo has reached a new player milestone.

The statistics come from the official Resident Evil website global player tracker, at the time of writing this there is 2,328,797 players that have downloaded and the 'one-shot' demo. Interestingly enough, out of those 2 million players only 26% of them managed to complete the demo before the timer kicked them off.

This means that out of the 2,328,797 players only 605,487 players managed to complete the demo. Perhaps this is an indicator to the level of difficulty that the full game will have, maybe players should listen to Capcom's recommendations for conserving ammo and being much more strategic and not so trigger happy. Just a week a go the demo had already been played by 1.3 million people, check that story out here. Resident Evil 2 Remake will launch on January 25th on the PlayStation 4, PC and Xbox One.

Like previous Metro games, the new open-ended sequel Metro Exodus will have reactive storytelling that changes based on the decisions you make.

At it's core Metro Exodus is a game built around hope--hope for a better life on the surface, hope for a future that isn't cowering in the metro shadows. But as players make choices the story will unfold in different ways based on their decisions, bringing to mind some slightly RPG-y elements that are found in previous Metro games. This system will be nuanced and not obvious, and players won't always know how and why their actions are shaping the story's progression and ultimately its ending.

In a recent interview with PlayStation Universe, Deep Silver exec Huw Beynon discussed dynamic storytelling and confirmed multiple endings for Metro Exodus.

Visceral's cancelled Star Wars game, codenamed Project Ragtag, would've been the franchise's own intergalactic version of Uncharted infused with action elements.

I was looking forward to Project Ragtag ever since I reported about the Star Wars games timeline in 2016. The game, which was being directed by Uncharted dev Amy Hennig and was cancelled in 2017 along with Visceral's closure, would've had an original storyline with one singular aim: to make gamers feel like they've played a Star Wars movie. Not a whole lot is known about Ragtag, but Rogue One writer Gary Whitta says it would've been like Star Wars Uncharted.

"I saw a bunch of that game and it looked terrific," Whitta said in a recent episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily.

Capcom's new Resident Evil 2 Remake is shaping up to be a monster in all the best ways.

The new Resident Evil 2 Remake is a big deal for Capcom, so it's no surprise the game will be optimized and tweaked to run as smooth as possible on all platforms. The team has leveraged its new proprietary REngine to craft amazing visuals, creepy environments, and fluid animations, all of these tweaks won't be lost on the PC version--far from it actually.

Capcom has confirmed that RE2make will support ultrawide 21:9 resolution monitors at launch, which is great news for enthusiasts who want a more immersive experience. We also know the horror survival game will have variable refresh rates for users with higher-end GPUs and display setups. Given the slightly janky controls and aiming this FPS boost will be tremendously beneficial and make things much more buttery-smooth.

Led by big names like PUBG, GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2, the premium gaming market earned $17.9 billion in 2018.

Although the free-to-play segment utterly dominated 2018's gaming revenues thanks to Asia's massive playerbase spending, the latest report from SuperData illustrates how different regions favor different types of games. Premium games, that is games that are buy-to-play sold digitally and in retail, dominate the North American and European markets, serving as a sharp contrast to the F2P-led regions.

Buy-to-play games across PC and console made $17.9 billion in 2018, up 10% year-over-year but only accounting for just 16.3% of the total $109.8 billion in digital revenues.

Shortly after releasing the new Betrayal expansion, Grinding Gear Games outlines the immediate and distant future for action RPG Path of Exile.

Path of Exile is getting four major updates in 2019, all of which will adhere to GGG's familiar content rollouts including challenge leagues, new features, fresh class skills to keep combat nice and momentous, as well as basic fixes and QoL improvements. While no exact details were given on the updates themselves, a timeline was confirmed:

The developers also hope to release the next mega-expansion in 2020 with content that rivals huge content drops like Betrayal and Fall of Oriath. GGG is careful to say that a release date hasn't been locked into place, though.

Microsoft's new Project xCloud game streaming subscription ambitiously folds neatly into its new Xbox-as-a-service roadmap.

By streaming games remotely from servers to platforms like consoles, PCs, laptops, and mobile phones, Microsoft's Project xCloud service will usher in a new era of convenience and accessibility. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the company internally refers to the latent service as the "Netflix for games," and is one of the major proponents in cross-platform, uniform and digital-based game streaming. Other competitors like Amazon, Google, and even telecom titan Verizon are also making game streaming services.

But Microsoft has an edge over its competitors: its vast webwork of existing online frameworks and a treasure trove of wholly-owned games and IPs. Thanks to long years of honing its craft, Microsoft has become a master of engagement by synergizing its subscriptions (Xbox LIVE, Xbox Game Pass), services (Mixer) and content (Xbox Store) together in a cohesive digital cycle that spreads cross Xbox consoles and Windows 10 PCs.

Blizzard is currently hiring 17 developers to help with new unannounced Diablo projects, of which includes Diablo IV.

We've known that Diablo IV is in development for a long time now. Blizzard recently confirmed that multiple new Diablo games are in development, and the studio has gone on previous hiring sprees to fill out its ranks for these new titles.

Now the studio is currently hiring 17 people across all disciplines to work on a new unannounced Diablo project. It's worth noting this project is separate from the Diablo: Immortal mobile game, and that some of these positions, including Senior Software Engineer Graphics/Gameplay, have been open for a while now.

Publisher Starbreeze's financial woes have seemingly caused The Walking Dead to be delayed a second time on consoles.

Starbreeze is having a hard time right now. Its big new The Walking Dead shooter didn't sell too well on PC, causing a big disruption in the company's quarterly projections (it was banking strongly on TWD's success). This set off a chain of events that ultimately led to Starbreeze filing for insolvency and curtailing all extraneous segments not related to game development. Now Starbreeze is exclusively focusing on games, and according to ex-CEO Bo Andersson, The Walking Dead is just the first of eight big new projects the company plans to make.

Sadly Starbreeze's woes continue on. The publisher was undoubtedly counting on The Walking Dead console port to win back some of those project sales and bolster quarterly earnings, but the PS4 and Xbox One versions have been delayed from their original February 2019 launch to an unknown date. This marks the second console release delay.

In a publicity stunt garnering tons of attention--both positive and negative--UFC champ Ronda Rousey is lending her voice to one of Mortal Kombat's most notorious femme fatales.

The rumors were right: renowned MMA knucklebuster Ronda Rousey is coming to Mortal Kombat XI, at least in voice-over capacity. The fighter will lend her voice to MK's original female badass Sonya Blade through cinematic sequences, fatalities, the new crushing blow mechanic, and the overarcing storyline.

"I've been a lifelong Mortal Kombat fan, and Sonya Blade was the first kick-ass, female video game character that I related to. I always admired her and admittedly kind of emulated her in my own way," Ronda Rousey said in a press release. "Now I get to voice her in Mortal Kombat 11. It's a dream come true to be a part of the Mortal Kombat franchise that I grew up playing.

We aren't very far out from the release of Anthem and to get the hype ball moving further along, BioWare has released a new gameplay video. This time round we will be looking at Anthem's story, progression and customization options.

BioWare has started a new gameplay series for their coming new release Anthem. In the above video we get an in-depth look at Anthem's story, level progression and customization options. At the beginning of the video we get some details regarding the games story, we learn about the the Anthem of Creation and the dominion, as well as our role as players and what it means to be able to step into a javelin suits.

About halfway through the video we get a more deeper understanding of the customization options and how players will have to change their load out depending on what mission or enemy they are trying to conquer. Each javelin has "2 offensive slots, 1 support slot, 2 weapon slots, 6 component slots and 1 ultimate power." Players will have to find a balance between each of these slots, load outs will change depending on the play style of the player and the mission that is ahead of them. For more Anthem news, check out yesterdays gameplay video release, it showcases 10 more minutes of gameplay, click here.

If you are into indie games there is no doubt that you have heard of Motion Twin's Dead Cells. The title released back in 2017 and was a hit success in its genre, a year later it released on the Nintendo Switch and took off sales wise.

Dead Cells came to the Nintendo Switch on August 7th, 2018 and was very well received by the Switch community. So well received that the sales for Dead Cells outsold the PlayStation 4 sales by 4 to 1. Recently the sales numbers have been released by Motion Twin and it reveals that within the first of its release on the Nintendo Switch Dead Cells managed to sell 100,000 copies.

Now this might not sound like a lot of copies when comparing to a AAA title, but for an indie rouge-lite action-platformer this is quite an achievement and Motion Twin should be more than proud of their efforts. To reward all those players that picked up Dead Cells, Motion Twin have said that there will be a free major patch headed fro Dead Cells sometime in the early months of 2019. As more details are released about the content update I will be sure to follow up with another news piece. Want more information on Dead Cells? Check out the official website here.

Nintendo Switch owners are about to be blessed with yet another fantastic game, Titan Forge Games will be debuting SMITE very soon for the handheld console.

Portable gamers will be glad to know that they will be able to go full god mode wherever they in about a week. Hi-Rez Studios and Titan Forge Games will be debuting their title SMITE to the Nintendo Switch on January 24th and to celebrate the launch almost being upon us they have released the above launch trailer.

Nintendo Switch owners can pre-order the 'Founder's Pack' which contains bonus loot for the player, the Foxy Amaterasu skin, 200 gems and much more. I have provided a full dot point list in the entirety of this post. If you are interested in checking out more news to do with SMITE, visit the announcement trailer here. For more information regarding SMITE for the Nintendo Switch, visit the official listing for the title here.

Now that it's broken away from Activision, Bungie is in charge of its own Destiny...and it should be a bright future.

Few studios with stellar AAA power remain independent as long as Bungie has, but the devs have managed to stay in charge of their own future by consistently navigating the industry will skill, luck, and a proven track record. Having split from Activision and gained full control over the Destiny IP, Bungie is looking to a future where it self-publishes its own games--including the next Destiny game.

But there's other things in the works, too: Bungie received a $100 million investment from Nexon to fund a "bold new vision," and is reportedly working on a brand new IP (possibly related to its Matter trademark).