Gaming - Page 882

At the D23 Expo in Japan, Square Enix has revealed to us more of what is to be expected in Disney's upcoming Kingdom Hearts III. A new trailer has shown off the Monsters, Inc. world, which is to also be featured in the new game.

In the above trailer confirms the Monsters, Inc. world for Kingdom Hearts III, showing off makeovers of Sora, Goofy and Donald the Duck in monster form.

We also get some quick looks at the Toy Story world and also the Tangled world, as the partnership between Pixar, Disney and Square Enix continues we will more than likely see more of this title in the coming months.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is finally out but with early PS4 players saying that the game requires a massive 23GB patch when it's first being installed, some gamers are asking why.

The developer has made some significant changes and adjustments to Kingdom Come: Deliverance, with v1.01 also adding new things in as well. Will Powers, the Senior Marketing and PR boss for Deep Silver, who are publishing the game for Warhorse Studios, said the team did "at least" six weeks of work polishing the game before its final on-disc build.

Powers said that this is why the v1.01 patch is 23GB, clarifying: "The way that I've been told that the engine works, is it takes the entire game and separates the PKG or ISO into 2GB archives. If during a patch you so much as alter a 1KB text file within any of these 2GB archives, then you need to reupload the ENTIRE 2GB portion".

It seems like a few of the big Steam Early Access games are leaving their not-v1.0 confines with Battlegrounds recently hitting v1.0 and now we have Rust leaving Steam Early Access and reaching the v1.0 milestone, too.

The prise of Rust has increased now that it's out of Steam Early Access, with v1.0 of the game costing $35, up from the $20 entry cost. The team has also changed the update frequency, moving from weekly to monthly updates.

Rust in its v1.0 state has some improvements made to the graphics, after gamers were noticing visual loss with the constant changes being made to the game. The final release sports improved lighting and post-processing, as well as new flora and fauna in the game world.

Ubisoft has once again made the lion's share of its net sales from digital, showing how the company has not only changed but laying out a clear path for the publisher's future.

Over the past few years Ubisoft has made a significant transition to embrace digital in its lineup of games, and its slate typically taps the live service model to some extent (look at The Division, Rainbow Six: Siege, and even the upcoming Far Cry 5, for instance). Now in its latest Fiscal Q3'18 earnings report, Ubisoft illustrates just how important digital is by earning 80% of its total net sales for the quarter from digital purchases, DLC, subscriptions and microtransactions.

Ubisoft made €725 million in net sales in the three-month period from October thru December 2017, of which 80.4%, or €670 million, was from digital. That represents an increase of 75% year-over-year.

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto strongly hints the Switch will extend beyond the company's typical console lifecycle.

When the Nintendo Switch was revealed in in 2017 I thought two things: the device's transforming nature was brilliant, and that it'd be a system that lasts for quite a long time. The console-handheld hybrid is positioned to be Nintendo's merged future for possibly as long as a decade simply because it combines both handheld and console gaming together--and it's built on NVIDIA's Tegra chip, which can leverage a host of combined graphics and/or network architecture to boost performance. There's so many options Nintendo has at this stage insofar as hardware and software capability that the Switch looks to be the apex of the company's hardware evolution (Wii to Wii U to Switch).

Now at a company financial briefing, Nintendo exec and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto pretty much says gamers should expect the Switch to disrupt the games-maker's traditional console release cadence.

Ubisoft is apparently working on a mysterious unannounced AAA franchise to release in next fiscal year's timeline.

While scouting Ubisoft's latest Fiscal Q3'18 earnings I noticed something quite interesting: the company says a new unannounced franchise should roll out in the fiscal year ending March 2020 (FY2019). In fact, this game was supposed to release during this year's timeline but was delayed for unexplained reasons.

The report sees Ubisoft downgrading its sales target by 5 million units due to the delay, as it now will ship 4 AAA games from April 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019 versus 5 AAA titles. Here's what the company said in the filing:

Now that the Nintendo Switch has gained tremendous sales worldwide, it's imperative that the games-maker is able to continue this momentum going forward with a slate of innovative products and games--which is something Nintendo plans to do.

Every quarter it seems Nintendo keeps beating its Switch sales targets. The company is selling the hybrid-handheld console faster than they can make them, but even amid shortages, it's managed to completely smash its forecasts--a trend that should continue for the foreseeable future. What makes the Switch so appealing is not only that it allows gamers to take their games on-the-go and also play them at home, but the software library itself, which is grown to tremendous proportions. And this is only just the beginning.

In a recent financial meeting, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima affirmed that the Switch's second year on the market is extremely important for its continued success, and the Japanese titan has a solid plan in place for the console's future.

Capcom's bet on Monster Hunter World is paying off big time: the Japanese publisher just broke a major shipment milestone with the online game, sending a clear signal that service games, when done right, can absolutely rocket a game dev to new heights.

Back when Monster Hunter World was announced I knew right away this game would be the most important and difficult game the company had made in recent memory. An online-based Monster Hunter across mainstream consoles is pretty much everyone's dream, especially since the series had pretty much been secured on Nintendo platforms for a while. I was actually worried that Capcom wasn't ready for such a big investment, and the weight of an online world with millions of players would prove too much to bear, but the publisher understood its task and didn't just meet the requirements: they might've redefined what a service game could, and should, be.

As one of Capcom's most lucrative properties, it shouldn't be a big surprise Monster Hunter World sold extremely well. But what is surprising is how fast it achieved this feat: Capcom confirms that Monster Hunter World has now shipped (or sold-in) 6 million copies worldwide, making it the fastest-shipping game in the company's entire storied history.

Nintendo recently delayed its Switch Online subscription multiplayer service once again, this time to September 2018, but the Japanese games-maker is confident it'll be worth the wait.

Last we heard about the Switch Online service was yet another delay, and no actual new information on what's included. So far we know that it includes online play in a number of Switch games, voice chat through a weird smartphone app, lobbies to join up with friends, and a selection of retro NES games infused with online multiplayer--all for $20 a year. Now the value proposition kind of speaks for itself, despite gamers being disgruntled they actually have to pay for online play in Nintendo games, but it appears Nintendo is trying to find new ways to ensure gamers get more bang for their buck.

In a recent Q&A session following an earnings report, Nintendo executives affirmed that the company is mulling over tons of possibilities for Switch Online, and that they're committed to the service for the long haul. In fact they say it'll be "worth the wait," hinting that we might be getting a stronger Virtual Console presence that's been entirely absent from the Switch since it's launch.

The Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition was scheduled for release tomorrow but it appears that Square Enix has released the Pocket Edition early, it is available now.

The Pocket Edition has gone live on the App Store for iOS owners, and the Google Play store for Android users, the game has been broken up into chapters which can be purchased individually. Potential users should note that the first chapter of the story is completely free.

Hajime Tabata, Final Fantasy XV director spoke to IGN about the Pocket Edition coming to PC and he replied with "there is certainly a chance."

As the release of Far Cry 5 is just around the corner, the game has had a new gameplay video released by IGN, the video gives examples of how players can diversify their gameplay experience with Guns for Hire.

The 5 minute video by IGN shows how players can approach the game in a number of ways, a sniper method with Grace, sneaking in with Boomer the dog or be that guy who is a guns blazing maniac with the aerial bomber Nick.

What we see in the video is quite interesting as while enjoying the gameplay and the different the variety of approaches that can be done, it appears players can defeat an entire enemy cult camp without even firing a single shot. The video shows that correct placement of Grace the sniper allows for her to take out every enemy without even endangering the player, this could very well just be early game or could require an update before launch.

It has been announced that the upcoming God of War will feature a collaboration with developers Sony Interactive Entertainment, Santa Monica Studio and Loot Crate to bring a limited edition God of War Loot Crate.

Loot Crate will be doing what they do best and that is to fill the crate with a combination of different licensed goods, this would include apparel, accessories, replicas of in-game items and more.

All of which that will be featured in the loot crate will be worth over $90, for gamers it will cost $49.99, plus shipping if they happen to live within the US. For gamers outside the US, Loot Crate only ship to the following countries: Chile, Mexico, Japan, Canada, Colombia, Singapore, Argentina, and South Korea and will also increase the cost to $74.99.

Sony has taken to an NBA court to promote the upcoming God of War game. During a break over the course of the game Sony projected a God of War video onto the surface of the court.

The above video is recording of the trailer unfolding, unfortunately the video is recorded in quite low quality but what should be taken from it is that the video was displayed on the entirety of the court, which provides quite a big screen for the audience.

God of War will feature a Stone Mason edition and has a confirmed release date for April 20th. There is also a small old-school text adventure game called that can be played through Facebook Messenger that can unlock some very cool high-quality art pieces.

The last we heard about the PlayStation 5 was my world exclusive that the PS5 will feature a discrete GPU, and not an underpowered APU that powers not just the PS4 and PS4 Pro, but even the Xbox One, Xbox One S, and the new Xbox One X consoles.

But the latest on the PS5 is that we have a developer saying that the PS5 and PSVR shouldn't be bundled together, but they should be "considered essential together", instead. During an interview with the Official PlayStation Magazine UK (March 2018, issue 146) Harold Vancol, the Creative Director at Grab Games, said:

I still remember my cousin being the biggest Star Wars fan I know, and back in the 90s when we were playing games over LAN at my house, he introduced us all to Star Wars: Dark Forces at a time when Quake and Half-Life were filling our first-person shooter fantasies.

Dark Forces was one of the best Star Wars games of its time, and has now been teased under Epic Games' beautiful Unreal Engine 4 a senior environment artist at developer Obsidian Entertainment. The remake only takes a look at the first level of the original Dark Forces game, but with its new graphics, Dark Forces has never looked better. Just check it out.

There are some side-by-side screenshots here, with developer Jason Lewis teasing he has no ETA on whether the level will be released in playable form.

Update: Thanks to your comments, I went and looked at what Gabe Newell had to say about the matter, with Newell saying "Not that I'm aware of".

It's Sunday night here in South Australia and I've decided to get some work done (I seriously never stop) and then I saw an article that I have no idea how I didn't see days ago, with Business Insider writing a piece titled Xbox is in trouble -- and Microsoft is considering a major acquisition to fix it.

Microsoft buying EA is too much as EA has its tenticles across the entire gaming market, PUBG Corp is too obvious and way too late, but acquiring Valve makes sense. Microsoft is a stones throw away from Valve in Washington, and Valve have the tightest grip on the PC gaming world out of all companies involved through Steam. Not only do they have the largest digital distribution system for PC gamers in the world, but they have some of the biggest IP in gaming history.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds quickly became the most popular PC game of all time through 2017, but now PUBG Corp has its massive Battle Royale game unleashed onto mobile.

Tencent won the exclusive rights to run with PUBG in China, where they are localizing the game for the country to ensure that Battlegrounds on mobile aligns "with socialist core values". There are actually two "PUBG mobile games" made by Tencent, with the first being PUBG: Army Attack, a new game that was developed by Tencent's Timi Studio.

The more traditional PUBG game is called PUBG: Exhilarating Battlefield, with this game being developed by Lightspeed & Quantum Studio. Both of the new PUBG games have a combined 75 million pre-registrations, blowing Western gamers out of the water in sheer numbers.

Fortnite has reached a huge milestone of over 3.4 million players, but with teh free-to-play lure of it, it's no surprise that Epic Games' latest shooter is so successful. But console gamers get the short stick with low FPS (in 90% of games anyway) but now Epic are preparing a new update that will provide a silky smooth 60FPS.

Epic has addressed this in their latest post regarding Fortnite, where the developer explained: "We were not able to stay ahead of our continued growth and multiple of our backend services have been struggling under load the last several weeks. And we also shipped v2.3.0 with significant bugs. We don't consider either acceptable". Epic continued, saying that they've "changed [its] release plans [and] processes to help improve quality of client builds".

As for the 60FPS world coming to Fortnite on consoles, Epic said that the optional 60FPS mode will be available for both the PS4 and PS4 Pro, as well as the Xbox One and Xbox One X consoles. Epic explains: "This 60 FPS mode is tuned for each console to maximize frame rate while minimizing loss of visual quality", note that the developer said "minimizing" the loss of visual quality, meaning the graphics settings are even lower than normal, but allow for the leap to 60FPS.

The more rumors we hear on Metro Exodus, the more exciting I become with news that the game will be leaving the immersive Moscow subway system for open environments, but this breaks the usual Metro mould.

Game Informer has provided the world with more details, with a tease of the open level design in the Russian wilderness. 4A Games has confirmed Metro Exodus is not an open-world game, but the new Metro title will definitely have some huge sandbox stages to explore, with a very linear storyline - once you visit a particular area, you won't be able to revisit it later.

Metro Exodus will have a Fallout-style scavenging and crafting system that will completely replace the "ammo economy" from the previous Metro games, where you purchased everything in-game with bullets collected. Weapon upgrades are a new concentration for Exodus, with upgrades like scopes and more to be configured, but you'll need to clean and maintain them or else they'll break.

Nintendo is getting help from a fellow Japanese game dev for its big new Metroid game.

The rumors were right: Bandai Namco is indeed helping Nintendo develop Metroid Prime 4, sources have confirmed to Eurogamer. Up until now Metroid Prime 4's developer has remained a mystery, and Nintendo has been keeping quite mum on the topic (as usual), only spilling a brief teaser and confirmation last year at E3 2017.

Bandai Namco Studios Singapore will helm the project alongside Nintendo, and Metroid Prime 4 is described as bringing the "action, isolation, and exploration of the Metroid Prime universe to life."