Gaming - Page 883

Thanks to its hugely successful engagement strategy and wealth of IP, Activision Blizzard is a juggernaut in the games industry. But how much can the biggest publisher earn in a single calendar year from microtransactions? Try over $4 billion (yes really).

In its Calendar Year 2017 earnings filing, Activision Blizzard today announced that it has made $4.9 billion from microtransactions, "value-added services," subscriptions, DLC and other digital content, up 11% year-over-year. That's already a massive sum of cash, but it gets even more impressive once we take a look at its total revenue. In CY2017 the publisher raked in $7.02 billion in total net revenue, with digital making up nearly 80% of that, or $5.58 billion. Digital sales and revenue have always been important to Activision Blizzard, especially since it owns mobile titan King as well as Blizzard's strong retinue of digitally-focused engagement-driven games, and of course Activision's own titles such as Call of Duty.

Microtransactions also made up about 69% of total net revenues earned during the year, showing this model is still extremely lucrative and shouldn't go anywhere any time soon. These earnings are actually record-breaking for the publisher, and should signal a doubling-down on microtransactions and engagement, despite the controversy and push-back against lootboxes.

Last year on the /r/NintendoSwitch reddit a voting poll was conducted to gather information about the communities thoughts on what unannounced games should be brought to the Switch. Now, a new poll is being taken and Nintendos sub-reddits are teaming up.

Redditor seeyoshirun has taken to the Super Smash Bros. reddit to post a new thread asking for assistance from fellow Nintendo fans in a new poll regarding unannounced games debuting to the Nintendo Switch.

The post explains that to create a fair and accurate result it has been shared across all of the franchise-specific sub-reddits. These results will not only be interesting for the communities involved but also for Nintendo, as this freely gathered information from inside the community would provide a wealth of knowledge to what the community really wants to see next.

Battlegrounds has been influencing the world with it being the definitive Battle Royale game, but Epic Games is chomping in on that with tens of millions of gamers playing their smash hit game, Fortnite.

Now we're hearing that developer Focus Home Interactive, which is comprised of some of the talent from the STALKER franchise, with their new game Fear the Wolves being a new post-apocalyptic first-person shooter. Fear the Wolves is based in the creepy setting of Chernobyl against 99 other players.

Fear the Wolves will have a few influences from the STALKER universe like anomalies and mutated beasts that are hunting you down. The new Battle Royale game has a day night cycle, a feature that will really differentiate it from Battlegrounds and Fortnite.

In a bid to accelerate game sales with its traditional rewards program, Nintendo is finally making good use of all those gold coins.

Nintendo will soon allow gamers to exchange My Nintendo Gold Points to buy Switch games on the eShop in Japan, North America, and Europe, the company revealed today. Gold Points are earned for Nintendo Switch, 3DS, and some Wii U games purchased physically or on the digital eShop (with some restrictions), so the more games you buy, the more coins you earn to potentially spend on new games. I wouldn't be surprised of Nintendo gave just a little more coins for digital purchases to push gamers towards the eShop--after all, Nintendo doesn't have to pay for cartridges, game boxes, and covers when you buy digitally.

"Starting in early March, you'll be able to spend any Gold Points you've accumulated in My Nintendo when purchasing Nintendo Switch software from Nintendo eShop on your device, or even via this website! You can pay for the remaining balance with Nintendo eShop funds, or any other payment method available in Nintendo eShop," reads an announcement post.

In a bid to win back the For Honor community, Ubisoft has transitioned towards a pure feedback-driven approach to its viking-vs-samurai-vs-knights hack and slash game For Honor.

For Honor's dedicated servers will arrive on PC on February 19, shortly after the release of the game's new Age of Wolves expansion, Ubisoft today announced. Following through on its development roadmap revealed last summer and a successful Open Test in December, the For Honor team has just announced that dedicated servers are coming to the PC version of For Honor on February 19.

Console gamers will also get dedicated servers too, but no exact timeline was announced. Ubisoft notes that these new servers will help PVP by removing NAT requirements and session migration, thus improving matchmaking and stability.

Despite predictions of revenue moderation, GTA V and GTA Online are still breaking records four years into their life cycles.

Along with Grand Theft Auto Online breaking $1 billion in revenue and once again powering high microtransaction earnings, its host game GTA V has now shipped more than 90 million units, publisher Take-Two Interactive recently announced. Rockstar Games' engagement strategy is paying off big time and is not only keeping existing players fed with new content, but attracting new purchases by interested gamers systematically year after year. As planned, GTA V has become the gateway to prolonged revenues via online-based engagement found in GTA Online.

Remember that these are shipments and not direct sales (sell-in is shipped, sell-through is sold to consumers), but it's nonetheless an impressive number.

Rockstar Games has proven themselves masters of engagement with GTA Online's strong, recurring success and profitability.

It seems every quarter Take-Two Interactive has something great to say about GTA V and GTA Online, and this quarter is no different: in its latest Fiscal Q3'18 earnings call, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says the online mode has once again one-upped its previous records.

"2017 was the best year yet for Grand Theft Auto Online, capped off by an epic December that saw more players in the game than ever before," Mr. Zelnick said during the call. "During the fiscal third quarter Grand Theft Auto Online substantially exceeding our expectations and remained the single largest contributor to recurrent consumer spending."

Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive keeps cresting new heights thanks to GTA Online and its slate of successful digital-driven games.

In its third quarter earnings filings Take-Two Interactive shows just how important recurrent consumer spending and digital-based earnings are for the company--but that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. In the three-month period from October through December 2017, Take-Two earned $480.8 million in net revenue, up 0.9% year-over-year. That might not sound too big of an increase, but there's more to the story: 32% of that total, or $153.6 million, was made from recurrent consumer spending in games like GTA Online and NBA 2K18.

In fact Take-Two says its recurrent consumer spending for fiscal Q3'18 has grown by 64% year-over-year, meaning it pulled in $93.66 million from microtransactions, virtual currency, add-ons and DLC in last year's third quarter.

Microsoft took to Xbox Wire to announce a gaming accessories package for Sea of Thieves. The package was designed by Xbox and Rare to "align with the look and feel of the Sea of Thieves."

The game accessories package is going to be including a Seagate Special Edition 2TB Game Drive for Xbox, Controller Gear Special Edition Sea of Thieves Xbox Pro Charging Stand and a Xbox One Controller Stand V2.0.

The 2TB game drive will feature USB 3.0 and will allow for gamers to take more than "50 of their favorite games, including Sea of Thieves, and all the digital treasures you uncover on the go." Coming with the game drive is also "one month of Xbox Game Pass and an exclusive jewel-studded in-game weapon, The Midnight Blunderbuss, for your Sea of Thieves character to make sure you are hitting the seas in style."

Dragon Ball FighterZ sold 2 million units in total within the first week of release worldwide, this number didn't include the Asia or Japanese market though as the game was not released, now it is.

In a recent Media Create sales figure, Dragon Ball FighterZ sold 68,731 units just within its first week of release. The Bandai Namco title took second place behind Monster Hunter: World with 346,187 sales.

When comparing the sales of Dragon Ball FighterZ to before Monster Hunter: World was released it can be seen where the consumers have decided to spend there money. Judging from the statistics released, Monster Hunter: World completely overshadowed Dragon Ball FighterZ, beating it by a massive 403.68%.

Last week Capcom told us that the sales of Monster Hunter: World reached 5 million copies in just three days, now that title has reached Japan we have learned that in just 7 days it has sold 300,000 copies on PS4.

From a recent report released by Media Create, Monster Hunter: World has beaten Dragon Ball FighterZ sales taking first place on the software chart with 346,187 units sold.

The success of the title has also driven the sales of hardware, pushing upq the sales of the PlayStation 4 to 109,287 units in just a week.

A technical art director and ex-DICE artist has released a new video showcasing real-time rendering at its absolute limits.

From the above video we can see a selection of immaculate designs created in Epic Games' Unreal Engine. The designs seen are honestly stunning, holding true to the title of the video "Exploring the limits of real-time rendering" the ex-DICE artist really shows what can be done with Unreal Engine when time is taken.

When checking out his YouTube channel I noticed that the time between each video is around 6 months, the time frame difference between each of the render videos suggests that these videos are not created very quickly at all and I think that can be seen from the pristine quality when witnessing the finished product.

In the new issue of GameInformer, there are details of Metro Exodus which is currently in development by 4A Games, with these details making their way onto both Reddit and Twitter.

We are being told that Metro Exodus will have many more enemies, and that these enemies will be unique to the area or season that you're playing in. In order to kill them, you'll have a bunch of old and new weapons to use with Metro Exodus' base weapons featuring up to 5 attachments. You can holster your weapons so that NPCs know that you're not going to kill them.

But it's the size of the game that will be the most impressive thing, as the biggest open area in Metro: Last Light was around 111 x 200 meters, but it looks like Metro Exodus is going to be gigantic in comparison with areas of up to 2000 x 2000 meters, or 10-18x the size of Last Light.

Today Deck 13 and Focus Home Interactive announced The Surge is getting a sequel that's due out sometime next year.

While I wasn't particularly a fan of The Surge (see our review here), I can see the appeal. The game is certainly gritty and has some interesting mechanics, such as slicing off limbs, and the gear balancing act. The acclaim and sales for the original have warranted a sequel, which should top the original in every way--while retaining key content and features gamers enjoyed.

"The Surge 2 keeps what fans and critics loved about the original - hardcore combat utilizing a unique, dynamic, limb-targeting system and deep character progression - while also expanding greatly upon the formula," reads a press release pushed out earlier today. "The Surge 2 takes place in a brand new environment: a sprawling, devastated city with larger and more ambitious level design, made possible by Deck13's upgraded and improved engine. Combat is more brutal and tactical than ever, with even more options thanks to an expanded limb targeting system."

CD Projekt RED will attend E3 2018...and that may or may not be a big deal for gamers.

Just a few weeks ago we reported on a rumor that CD Projekt RED would attend E3 2018 and showcase new Cyberpunk 2077 footage to key journalists behind closed doors, effectively giving the press the first glimpse of their massively ambitious new sci-fi game. Now according to the official E3 Expo site we know for a fact the Polish game dev will show up for this year's game show in Los Angeles, but there's no guarantee they'll actually show off Cyberpunk 2077 just yet.

Remember that CD Projekt RED is currently pushing out new content for the Gwent card game, and work has likely begun on its next unannounced AAA RPG that's to be released by 2021 alongside Cyberpunk 2077. But the real star of the show is Cyberpunk, which has been in development for years and was shown off four years ago in 2014.

Gamers can soon play Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire on-the-go on their fancy Nintendo Switches.

Obsidian Entertainment might be focusing solely on the PC version of Pillars of Eternity II, the sequel to the yesteryear cRPG hit game, but that doesn't mean there's not more room for other platforms--and more money, of course. Given Obsidian's current structure it behooves the dev to push their games to as many platforms as possible, as we've seen with Pillars of Eternity dropping on both PS4 and Xbox One in recent months.

Now their D&D-style cRPG is coming to an unlikely yet massively successful console: the Nintendo Switch. According to Game Informer Pillars of Eternity II's console versions are being developed by Red Cerberus and are planned to be ready by holiday 2018, including the Switch flavor.

HypeTrain Digital has announced that their new open-world first-person horror survival game Desolate, will be making its way to Steam Early Access on February 8th.

Desolate will force players to volunteer and explore the the area that is given to them, enemies of all kinds will be in the way of players, from monsters, to demons, supernatural anomalies and even just the environment. Players do not have to take this game on alone though as Desolate offers a co-op experience with up to four players, this would greatly increase the chances of survival.

Currently, the Steam Early Access for Desolate features only 2 Story Acts of the 3 that are planned for the title. HypeTrain have released a new story trailer video in celebration to the release of the game onto the Steam marketplace.

A new story expansion has hit Middle-Earth Shadow of War, in addition to the extended content for players a number of additions have also been added in hopes of improving the overall gameplay.

Blade of Galadriel follows the story of playable character named Eltariel who has been sent to Mordor to hunt down and kill the Nazgul. Eltariel is an elite elf warrior which will be introducing a number of new combat abilities, skills and of course gear.

Warner Bros commented on the new expansion, saying "Encounter memorable new Nemesis characters, such as Flint, Tinder and the Slayer of the Dead, while battling the Nazgul and learning more mysteries of their past"

Days before the launch of Civilization VI players have been gifted with yet another Civilization to play, The Zulu, led by Shaka.

From the above trailer we can see that the Zulu are mainly a military orientation civilization. The Impi which is the Zulu special unit is a menacing pikeman with a mindset for war. Impi have increased flanking bonus, low maintenance cost and a lower cost than other combat units within the same era.

For more a more detailed breakdown on the new Civilization view the above video. Civilization VI will be released on February 8th, 2018.

Nintendo has just answered if their Definitive Edition of Hyrule Warriors on the Switch will feature Breathe of the Wild amiibo support.

Nintendo has taken to the Japanese website of Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition to confirm that the Switch version of the game will have amiibo support for Archer Link, Horseback Link and Zelda.

It will be interesting to see if Nintendo will hide any unlockables behind the amiibos, usually Nintendo doesn't enjoy putting direct unlockables behind a money door, as the company seems to prefer players to earn their rewards and not just pay their way to get there.