Gaming News - Page 78

Nintendo is reportedly preparing its next-generation games console that could build off of the Switch's legacy, but Nintendo's corporate leadership is predictably not ready to discuss the product's existence.

Nintendo, being one of the most conservative video games companies on the planet, has no qualms about remaining quiet about its new gaming system up until the eve of its reveal. Even with reports of the Switch 2 being shown off behind the scenes at Gamescom with an impressive Matrix Awakens UE5 demo and a potential release during Holiday 2024, Nintendo's top brass has deflected all questions about the Switch 2.

In a recent shareholders Q&A held in Japan, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa was asked about the new console. Furukawa commented by saying the rumors of the Gamescom demos were untrue, further denying that Nintendo had briefed Activision CEO about the new system. During the FTC v Microsoft court case, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick testified that the company did not know the specs of Nintendo's new console.

There's a popular theory going around that Final Fantasy XVI has flopped, and Square Enix's recent 6-month performance figures are being used as proof. But the reality is that there's far more going on with Square Enix's accounts than the performance of a singular video game.

Square Enix's profits have dropped by over 57% since last year, and members of the gaming community are latching on to this drop as evidence that Final Fantasy XVI is a dud for the Japanese games-maker. It's not as simple as that; the real reason behind the drop is that last year is a tough year to compare against for a number of reasons. A closer look at Square Enix's income statement is warranted.

The first thing we have to look at is basic net sales and operating income. While net sales are up to 172 billion yen (+5.3% YoY) for the 1H'24 period (1H refers to first-half, or the first six months of the fiscal year), Square Enix's operating income is significantly lower than the year prior.

The Epic Games Store still is not profitable, but records indicate it may not actually deliver a positive cumulative cash balance across the next few years.

The Epic v Google trial is under way, and new testimony from Epic Games Store VP and General Manager Steve Allison reveals the storefront isn't yet profitable. Previous reports indicate that Epic did not expect EGS to be profitable until at least 2027, however it's possible the Store could deliver a positive gross profit before then.

Epic Games Store's non-profitability was first revealed in the Epic v Apple trial from years ago. Analysis of Epic's forecast models from 2019 laid out two potential models for the Store to follow. One was an "aggressive pursuit" model that strongly emphasized generating more revenue from games "signed" to the store. This would result in significantly higher gross revenues of up to $1.177 billion by 2024. Under this aggressive pursuit model, Epic expected to deliver a positive gross profit value by 2024 (this does not include taxes).

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is about to be released - on November 10, on both PC and consoles - and as you're likely aware, it supports NVIDIA DLSS 3.

So, the question is how much nippier will DLSS 3 make the shooter? And the answer is impressively faster, although we already knew that - but now we can see the difference in a new teaser clip uploaded to YouTube by NVIDIA.

We are reminded that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will be up to 1.8 times faster when PC gamers turn on DLSS 3, so the frame rate boosting tech makes quite a difference.

In the category of 'largest ever' achievements, Alienware recently built a huge 16-foot (5 meter) mechanical gaming keyboard, and a giant mouse to go with it, in order to eventually play Dota 2 with these truly oversized peripherals.

Tom's Hardware spotted the feat which was posted on YouTube with some pro gamers - the high-ranked Team Liquid - taking command of the mouse and keyboard in order to play a 1v1 mid lane face-off in Dota 2.

With three players on the huge keyboard (seemingly two much of the time), and another two on the massive mouse, all trying to coordinate the on-screen action, as you might imagine, a sizeable helping of hilarity ensued.

With a massive leak of early Grand Theft Auto 6 footage and code in September 2022, confirmed by several sources, including Rockstar, it seems that there's quite a bit of info hidden in the code thanks to an "AI DEBUG" menu discovered.

Over on Reddit, a user by the name of Tobbelobben30 went through all 200 presets and settings to offer a look at 20 of the most interesting and notable ones - that could lead to some pretty game-changing advances coming in Grand Theft Auto 6.

One of them, called 'ProceduralMotion,' looks to be all about creating dynamic character animation and movement based on in-game conditions. This could be as simple as NPCs reacting to weapons and other illegal activity. Or, it will probably be much more nuanced thanks to an additional 'Emotional LocoRequests' that will dynamically help convey character emotion through animation.

PlayStation users will no longer be able to share screenshots and videos from their PS4 or PS5 consoles to X from November 13, 2023. X, formerly known as Twitter, has been a PlayStation social media staple for several years, with players able to link their accounts and quickly share game progress, little clips, or screenshots to the platform via PlayStation's simple 'Share' functionality.

Sony announced the news via a notice on its official website with the somewhat ominous title, 'Termination of X (formerly known as Twitter) integration.' The move caught many by surprise, and many gamers and critics have taken to X and other platforms to vent their frustration.

Some blame Elon Musk for Sony abandoning the platform and for X's downfall in recent months. After he acquired the platform, his stint as CEO saw Twitter lose several high-profile advertisers and a move towards monetization. This means the reason for PlayStation ditching the platform could be as simple as "money."

There's been a lot of chatter surrounding the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, and a lot of it has been focused on the game feeling more like an expansion than a full game - at least from a campaign perspective. And there's plenty of evidence pointing to it starting as an expansion, like the fact that you need to fire up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II on PC to play it or that the PlayStation 5 game doesn't feature a Platinum Trophy.

Setting all of that aside for the moment, the reviews for the game's campaign have been pretty savage so far, with the consensus from the dozen or so critic reviews being that it's bland, boring, and short. Call of Duty campaigns aren't known for being epic experiences, but it sounds like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III's campaign can be beaten in a single sitting.

IGN scored the campaign a 4 out of 10, saying, "Modern Warfare 3's campaign commits the biggest sin possible for a globe-trotting action thriller: it's boring."

Following its $10 billion investment into OpenAI, Microsoft has been looking to artificial intelligence to optimize various parts of its business solutions, including its potent Copolit technology integrated into Microsoft 365. Now Microsoft plans to use AI for games development.

Microsoft today announced it has secured a multi-year partnership with Inworld, a company that develops generative AI solutions for games. Examples include using AI to create unscripted NPC dialog via large language models (LLMs). Right now the tech is a bit clunky, and Microsoft aims to create an AI design copilot solution for in-game dialog and quests.

Microsoft asserts that the AI design copilot tech will be used to "empower and assist" game developers with things like dynamic and responsive character dialog (including proximity-based interactions) and in-game activities ranging from quests and side missions. As per The Verge, this AI design copilot will be entirely optional and up to a studio's discretion on whether or not they want to use it.

If you feel like the Steam Deck doesn't come with enough storage, you can always beef it up, and if you're tech-savvy, a 2TB SSD can be put inside - or you could laugh at that mere capacity and hook up a 61TB drive.

As VideoCardz reports, StorageReview managed this improbable sounding feat with the Steam Deck and an external (enterprise targeted) SSD.

The 61.44TB Solidigm P5336 drive only has a piffling 55.7TB of space remaining after installation and formatting, mind, but that should still pretty much cover your gaming needs (we'd hope).