Gaming - Page 784

As we already knew, Red Dead Online will be monetized similar to Grand Theft Auto Online. But it may use cosmetic-only microtransactions instead of content that affects the game (for now, at least).

The Red Dead Online beta has revealed key info about its microtransactions. In an update post, Rockstar confirmed RDO would have a premium currency called "gold bars" that can be purchased with real money when it launches. Gold bars can be earned in-game during the beta, but can't yet be purchased with real cash. As Rockstar explains, this currency is used to unlock various cosmetics such as camp customization items and weapon flair:

"You may notice some areas of the in-game menus are not yet accessible or available during this early period of the Beta, such as the Red Dead Online in-game Store which will eventually open up to provide the option of purchasing gold bars to directly acquire cosmetic items like Camp decor, or a special style for your weapons," Rockstar wrote in an update post.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is releasing in a few days and extremely popular Twitch streamer Ninja seems to be teasing his audience with some future content from Nintendo's flagship title.

Richard Tyler Blevins or 'Ninja' is of course known for his extreme popularity on Twitch playing the game Fortnite, it appears now Ninja might be spending some time on Nintendo's soon to release Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The above Tweet from Ninja showcases a Donkey Kong gif that captioned "Hey fighting/smash community..." and "I got something cooking up for you."

From that Tweet I can only assume that Ninja is planning on some Smash Ultimate content either in the form of livestreams on the release date of the game or some editted videos of him enjoying the experience. Perhaps both? Either way, Ninja jumping on the Smash Ultimate hype train will certainly bring a large amount more attention to the game, and maybe even some players that wouldn't usually pick up a fighting game. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be releasing on December 7th, 2018. For more information visit the official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate website here.

The YouTubers that have posted Super Smash Bros. Ultimate early before the official launch date have discussed their recent strikes that Nintendo have dished out.

Since the entire game of Super Smash Bros. UItimate has flooded out of Mexico, many players that pre-ordered a copy have received their unit ahead scheduled release date of December 7th. This has caused many players to post spoiler content into numerous forums, chats etc. In relation to this, YouTubers have taken some of Ultimates soundtracks and uploaded them to their channels, these videos of course received thousands of hits and were soon blasted with copy right strikes from Nintendo.

The channels that have felt the power of The Big N are Dystfizer, 31 Horas Mexico, Crunchii and no doubt many more. Crunchi received a massive 30 strikes which of course resulted in the ending of his channel, im response to this he said he was aware of the risk he was taking posting content before the games official launch but he was not "expecting them to give out copyright strikes." 31 Horas Mexico gave a statement to Kotaku and said "Uploading the soundtrack on day (one), compared to when others uploaded it could have been a difference between 100 views per video and 100,000-plus."

Bandai Namco have given a big introduction to Kenshin and Shishio arriving on the JUMP FORCE roster, both characters face off against each other in the newly released video.

We first heard about Kenshin and Shishio arriving on JUMP FORCE back in Japan's V-JUMP magazine, both characters were featured within the article along with the very iconic Piccolo from Dragon Ball. The week before that I reported on Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Goku/Vegeta as well as Golden Freiza.

In the above trailer we can see Shishio and Kenshin face off against eachother, each using a different series of unique attacks to overcome the other and finalizing with an epic ultimate attack. The description to the video leaves viewers with a question, it reads as follows; "Kenshin has returned to this earth to wander once more. Will you take up his reverse blade Sakabato or follow the steps of his villainous successor, Shishio Makoto?" Personally, I'd be a Kenshin all, the moveset seems much more fun and satisfying, that's just me though, what are your thoughts? For more infomration about JUMP FORCE, check out the Premium Edition Steel Book art collection set, or visit the official website here.

Ubisoft will be bringing their first major story expansion to Assassin's Creed Odyssey on December 4th, introducing the Legacy of the Blade and the story of Darius, the first to wield the hidden blade.

Ubisoft will be bringing episode 1 to players of Odyssey and also comes with a roadmap toward what more extra content will be arriving in the future. When looking towards the image we can see that within the Legacy of the First Blade expansion will be receiving three separate episodes. After those expansions are ushered out to players, sometime through the Spring of 2019 we will be deciding upon "The Fate of Atlantis."

The above trailer gives us a tease of Darius and his hidden blade and certainly makes for an epic introduction into what players will be experiencing once they have jumped into the new part of the story. Assassin's Creed Odyssey's'Legacy of the First Blade!' will be arriving on December 4th. Assassin's Creed Odyssey is currently available on PS4, Xbox One and PC. For more information regarding Odyssey, head on over to the official website here.

Gunfire Games and THQ Nordic have kicked off the release of Darksiders III by debuting an epic introduction into what players will be jumping into. Fury in action is truly awesome.

The trailer begins with a voice over from Fury and she takes up through a preview for the titles story, we then jump into some epic actions shots combined with an increasingly amplifying soundtrack. We also get an awesome scene with the Four Horseman together, and a demonstration of Fury's rage in different forms. She takes out a range of different enemies dodging, weaving and using several different abilities.

If you weren't aware, THQ Nordic are bringing two DLC's to Darksiders III they are titled 'The Crucible' and 'Keepers of the Void'. If you were planning on acquiring Darksiders III the Deluxe Edition might be an option, buyers receive new playable areas, new challenges, objectives puzzles and of course enemies to taken down. If you want more trailers with Fury, check this one out here. Darksiders III is available on PS4, Xbox One and PC. For more information, visit the official Darksiders III website here.

Bethesda cannot say it has had a good launch with Fallout 76, with the developer tripping over itself to their fans and consumers about the sorry ass state that the game has arrived in. But all isn't lost, there are two major updates planned for the next two weeks.

The first update will increase the Stash Limit from 400 to 600, with Bethesda explaining: "While this is somewhat conservative, we plan to increase the storage cap further once we verify that this change will not negatively impact the stability of the game". The Boss Loot has been increased, and a few other things have been balanced and fixed. The December 4 Fallout 76 patch will be followed by the December 11 patch a week later.

The December 11 patch will be huge for PC gamers as Bethesda is launching things that should've shipped with Fallout 76 like 21:9 monitor support, field of view adjustment, and push-to-talk for voice chat. I don't know why this didn't get included at launch, but the game is a mess to say it nicely. These two patches will do good things for the game, however. But, is it too late?

Just Cause 4 is right around the corner with its release on December 4, and while the previous entry in the franchise was known for crappy optimization, the developer seems to have made some huge changes to the next iteration.

Digital Foundry's latest breakdown with the PC version of Just Cause 4 sees the site using Intel's latest Core i9-9900K processor and a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, where they cranked the in-game visual settings to their maximum settings and ran the game at 4K. Even with the 9900K and GTX 1080 Ti combo, Just Cause 4 was only running at around 40FPS at 4K, which shows that you'll really need a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti to squeeze 60FPS or more out of the game.

The developer has made some huge improvements in using more CPU cores in Just Cause 4, so we should see some great performance from mid-range CPUs like the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or Core i5 processors, scaling up to the Ryzen 7 and Core i7/i9 processors. We'll be doing some 8K testing when it launches, so check back soon!

Fortnite is unstoppable, where it was only back in January that the game was home to 40 million players, 125 million in June, and now the phenomenon has passed 200 million players.

The news comes at a time when Fortnite is seeing 8.3 million concurrent players, and it is easily going mainstream on TV shows and real-life sporting events. It's on as many platforms as you can imagine: PC, Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS. The constant refinement and tweaks and new content that Epic Games is putting into it helps, as it doesn't let Fortnite players get bored.

Epic Games recently announced the $1 million Winter Royale tournament, something it has using its new $100 million injection of funds for esports tournaments for. It was only a couple of days ago mega star Drake reportedly had his Fortnite account hacked, with Twitch champion Ninja noticing Drake joined his Fortnite game, but it wasn't really Drake. The user had hacked his account and then started throwing racist remarks out, which is a big no-no on Twitch, and anywhere really.

Red Dead Online is live today for select gamers, and includes five PVP modes alongside a dynamically-layered world full of missions and content.

Red Dead Redemption 2's GTA Online-like multiplayer mode is on the horizon, but first Rockstar needs to stress test servers with a beta. The testing phase will be jam-packed full of content and comes with five PVP modes including a battle royale mode called Make It Count, which is like a minimalist BR mode. Make It Count starts players out with limited weapons like bows, arrows and throwing knives and forces players to compete in an ever-shrinking arena.

Other gametypes include: a classic deathmatch and team deathmatch combo, which has players dueling at high noon with shooting irons and other Wild West weaponry; a bounty hunter-esque mode called Most Wanted which is like Juggernaut from Halo; Hostile Territory, a land control mode that should be quite chaotic and fun; and Name Your Weapon, which has you select a personal deadly tool to use in FFA or team deathmatch action.

Industry analyst Michael Pachter has some free advice for Activision: release Black Ops 4's Blackout mode as a separate free-to-play game in 2019.

The battle royale balance of power has shifted towards Fortnite for one big reason: it's free. Anyone can play it free of charge, making it massively more accessible than $30 PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Accessibility is a main pillar of proper engagement-driven live services, and with easy access comes more engagement which can then turn into more money. One analyst thinks this trend needs to bleed over into AAA gaming.

As it stands now, most AAA live games combine both free-to-play and buy-to-play at the same time. Games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 have a $60 entry fee despite it being a multiplayer-only game, and embrace F2P-style microtransactions for recurring cashflow. Blackout is currently tied to the full game paygate. But Activision could follow Fortnite in one key way: making Black Ops 4's popular Blackout mode into a standalone free battle royale game on consoles and PC.

Obsidian Entertainment's new unannounced RPG will probably be built with Epic's versatile and scalable Unreal Engine 4.

Now that the RPG makers at Obsidian are Microsoft-owned, the team is apparently pivoting away from its proprietary Onyx games engine in favor of a more modern and flexible solution. At a university talk, Obsidian programmer Roby Atadero confirmed the studio's next game would be powered by Unreal Engine 4. This pivot will arm the studio with powerful tech and dislodge them from an antiquated engine.

Obsidian has yet to announce its new RPG, but sources told TweakTown in 2017 that the project is led be Fallout creator Tim Cain, and that it'd be "Obsidian's answer to Fallout." Blizzard alum Leonard Boyarsky is also on board with the game.

Publishers have tunnel vision on how to monetize their games and it's holding them back, says industry analyst Michael Pachter.

Microtransactions, season passes, DLC and subscriptions are contentious points in game communities...but they don't necessarily have to be. It's possible for developers and publishers to properly monetize their games in a favorable way; Path of Exile, for example, does this with cosmetic-only purchases. There's lots of potential to engage and monetize even further without pissing off gamers, but publishers have to widen their views past the billion dollar lootbox market and pay-to-play scheme.

In order to really tap the potential for monetization, publishers have to be more flexible and be willing to give away freebies in exchange for farther reach. The current structure is rigid and typically sees a buy-to-play game accompanied by a free-to-play monetization structure that thrives on a linear but cycling formula: full game sales, engagement, and monetization (I've outlined how service games work in my Fallout 76 article).

Last week, we saw that the Star Wars Battlefront II: Battle of Geonosis official trailer released and now that the update is being pushed to the live game we have some lengthy gameplay footage released.

The above 20 minute video takes us to the frontlines of a Galactic Assault on Geonosis. We see clone troopers, Obi-Wan Kenobi's abilities, vehicles such as the AT-TE, STAP, and Barc Speeder. The video also shows General Grievous' new hero skin shattered armor and a great insight at what players will be jumping into.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 Obi-Wan Kenobi and Geonosis arrive on November 28 for the Xbox One, Xbox One X, PC and PS4 Pro. In the entirety of this post you will find each of the timestamps for the respective features that are found in the video. For more information, visit the official EA Star Wars website here.

Darksiders III is about to release and in celebration of the titles debut we have been blessed with some brand new concept art pieces as well as glorious wallpapers.

Gunfire Games, the developer of Darksiders has taken to the PlayStation Blog to release these images. John Pearl, Design Director at Gunfire Games has taken the helm of the post and gives us some insight towards the design direction artists took when creating what we will be seeing in Darksiders III. "The world of Darksiders has always been replete with outlandish beings, weaponry and environments. Interpreting planet earth's Apocalypse and its inhabitants for Darksiders III was like working inside a playground for our artists. No design direction was off-limits."

The blog post reveals some behind the scenes artistic imagery of the progression enemy designs went through, the images showcase their original concepts before they were brought to life. Not only were early concepts released, but we also have been gifted with six mobile wallpapers featuring the third horseman of the Apocalypse, Fury. We can see from the wallpapers that Gunfire has given fans four different forms to choose from. We have fire, earth, ice and storm. All of which are available to download in their full resolutions. Darksiders III will be released on November 27th, 2018 and will be coming to the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. For more information visit the PlayStation blog post here.

Amazon has announced through the Amazon Deals Twitch Stream a new Kingdom Hearts III DLC that is exclusively available to the pre-ordering the title.

Players that pre-order Kingdom Hearts III through Amazon will receive a bonus DLC titled 'Dawn till Dusk' which contains a standard Kingdom Key Keyblade. The above Twitter post showcases the pre-order package and we can see that Keyblade features symbols of the moon, sun and star. It is unclear if this Keyblade will be arriving in gamers hands with special bonus in-game stats or not.

From the announcement, this exclusive offer will only be available to those in the United States and Canada. Amazon Prime members who pre-order Kingdom Hearts III will get $10 of Amazon back-pay once that package is pre-ordered. Kingdom Hearts III will be released on January 29th, 2019 and will be arriving on the Xbox One and PS4.

Nintendo are currently under the pump as these recent Super Smash Bros. Ultimate leaks have taken over the internet, widespread copyright strikes are hitting any account that spreads information.

If you haven't heard already, full copies of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate have arrived in the hands of many users that pre-ordered the game through Mexican retailers. Nintendo are currently on a full frontal assault against these users as this leak for Ultimate is not only the biggest leak the Smash Bros. franchise has seen, but could be the biggest leak a game in general has experienced before its release.

Any users that are posting Smash Bros. Ultimate content early are being flagged and copyright striked. Admins on forums etc are having a field day with banning users that are posting these spoilers, with the abundance of spoilers being more than apparent, portions of members in these communities have temporarily left in anger. Many users that have early copies are downloading Ultimates music and re-uploading it to their YouTube Channels, these accounts are being hit with copyright strikes from Nintendo and are being taken down completely. Nintendo could now be enduring the biggest leak that the company has experienced for a game under their umbrella, I'd expect that we should hear a statement from Nintendo sometime soon regarding this complete mess.

Right now the internet is on fire in terms of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate leaks popping up everywhere, Nintendo are currently attempting to maintain the blaze with copyright strikes but it doesn't seem to be going as planned.

Just two weeks out from the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate we are experiencing a massive influx of leaks springing up all over Smash Bros forums and discussion groups. The leaks are originating from players that pre-ordered their copies of Smash Ultimate through Mexican retailers, select retailers have released some copies early causing numerous vital pieces of Ultimates information to be leaked online. These players that have gotten their copy early have proceeded to post images, videos and answers to questions on forums, groups and threads across the internet.

Not only is their players leaking information out to the public, but dataminers that have gotten their hands-on the full copy of Ultimate have dived into full game files, revealing crucial information such as the amount of spirits found in the game, Amiibo cap level, World of Light information, boss information, music tracks and much more. It should also be noted that many of these dataminers are mixing in fake information of their own with their leaks, so if you don't mind spoilers and are reading up on what has been released so far, don't expect everything you read to be 100% confirmed. If you want to see what has hit the internet but don't want spoilers the Leak Megathread found on the Smashbros subreddit is relatively spoiler free, view at your own discretion here.

Sniper Elite developer Rebellion Developments is moving into the movie and TV industry in the UK preparing for the launch of its Judge Dredd TV series titled 'Judge Dredd: Mega-City One' and 'Rogue Trooper' in film form that will be directed by 'Moon' director Duncan Jones.

Rebellion back in 2000 purchased the rights to '2000AD' with both of its upcoming releases will include characters from the British comic book series. The developer will use the new UK-based studio for its own projects, but it will allow other companies in the UK to use their $100 million facility. The new Rebellion facility will be a huge 220,000 square foot office, with a gigantic 25,000 square foot sound stage.

Jason and Chris Kingsley, brothers, founded Rebellion in 1992 and have amassed a huge line up of successful games and franchises since. This new move will create 500 jobs once the studio is finished. The brothers said there is growth in the industry for their new $100m facility, especially with Netflix and Amazon are continuing to spend resources and a lot of money on content. Chris added: "We're seeing more big players wanting to get in on the action. This is very exciting for the domestic and global film industries, but it's also meant that our infrastructure is under increasing pressure".

Like most games publishers and console-makers, Nintendo of America makes the lion's share of its revenues during the holiday season.

Holidays are immensely important for any consumer business sector, especially an entertainment one like video games. During this holiday rush we see console sales ignite alongside digital and retail game purchases, and Nintendo's North American branch relies heavily on this period.

"The holiday selling season--October, November and December--is critically important to our company," Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime told Yahoo Finance.