Gaming - Page 891

That nasty security hole that Intel is dealing with right now is coming into effect on the gaming side of things, in Epic Games' smash hit Fortnite.

Epic has said that Fortnite servers are heavily reliant on cloud services, with the latest CPU patches to affected Intel CPUs (here's a list) are causing all sorts of issues. Epic writes: "We wanted to provide a bit more context for the most recent login issues and service instability. All of our cloud services are affected by updates required to mitigate the Meltdown vulnerability. We heavily rely on cloud services to run our back-end and we may experience further service issues due to ongoing updates".

The developer also added: "Unexpected issues may occur with our services over the next week as the cloud services we use are updated. We are working with our cloud service providers to prevent further issues and will do everything we can to mitigate and resolve any issues that arise as quickly as possible. Thank you all for understanding. Follow our Twitter @FortniteGame for any future updates regarding this issue".

There is plenty of choices when it comes to new games on the Nintendo Switch, now another another game is going to be thrown into the mix, as The Game Bakers 'Furi' will be hitting the Nintendo eShop next week.

Furi originally released on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC has now been ported over the Nintendo Switch with a little added bonus. The Game Baker is adding all previous content since its original release back in 2016, this includes the "One More Fight" DLC but also a special touch for those gamers that want a true challenge.

Furi on the Switch will be the only console port to feature a speed run mode, making the already difficult game that much more harder, attracting the more seasoned players for a real challenge. The Game Bakers describe Furi's anticipated release on their blog as "entirely feature complete" and continued on by saying "The Switch edition includes the boss roster-expanding "One More Fight" DLC, the option to speedrun its ultra-challenging Furier difficulty mode (never before available on console), and all improvements and updates previously added to the game."

Despite coming out just two months before 2017 ended, Sledgehammer Games' latest Call of Duty entry storms the download charts on Sony's PlayStation Network.

Per recent figures on Sony's PlayStation Blog, Call of Duty: WWII was the top downloaded PS4 game of 2017, which says a lot about what gamers actually want in the series. While Activision was quick to tout the game's huge sales figures--CoD: WWII made over $500 million in its opening weekend, putting it close to Black Ops II's astronomical numbers--other sources have corroborated the title's massive success. NPD analyst Mat Piscatella affirmed Call of Duty: WWII is the best-selling game of 2017 in the U.S., and Activision has since confirmed the game has made over $1 billion in earnings just a month or so after launch.

"Call of Duty WWII was November's best-selling game overall, and instantly becomes the best-selling video game of both 2017 year-to-date as well as the rolling 12 month period ending November 2017," NPD Group analyst Mat Piscatella wrote in a recent report.

Back in May of this year I predicted BioWare's new IP, now known as the mech-shooter Anthem, would be monetized in some form with microtransactions. Now key analysts are aligning with my predictions in an effort to gauge how the monetization pattern will go: will it be traditional gear-based lootboxes, or cosmetic-only--or a mixture of both?

EA is no stranger to service games. A good portion of its modern release slate have online-based components of some kind, many of which are near-perfectly monetized with a successful engagement model that not only fuels the billion dollar games industry, but churns the publisher's big money-making wheel. So it's no surprise that BioWare's big new IP, which should big the biggest project it's ever done (an online-based shooter with genre-melding and action-based mechanics that seems to be primarily multiplayer-focus), will likely tap this model: after all EA has probably poured tens of millions into the project. Also remember that Anthem should be a big Destiny competitor, and that means long-term engagement (which further means long-term monetization).

So what are the best ways to monetize for the long-term? The most profitable, of course, are randomized lootboxes. Based on the E3 2017 trailer, Anthem is absolutely prime territory for randomized lootboxes filled with upgraded gear, meaning cosmetics probably wouldn't be the best way to monetize in terms of maximum returns and longer engagement. The trailer showed a bit of RNG when a character opened a chest and got the rare Jarra's Wrath, and as soon as I saw that, I knew MTX would be in for sure. Also remember BioWare has past experience monetizing outright lootbox gear drops in games like Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Mass Effect: Andromeda. But it's not 100% guaranteed to have gear-based lootboxes, and EA could go with a mixed cosmetic-and-gear approach in an effort to curb its Battlefront II controversy...but Anthem also launches a long ways away (in Fiscal 2019, which is from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019).

In a world where PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds comes out of nowhere and racks up over 30 million sales, over 3 million concurrent gamers and over $600 million in sales in less than a day, it can make other sales of other games not seem so great.

Case in point is the lovechild of Wing Commander, the legendary and ambitious Chris Roberts with Star Citizen, a game that was born on Kickstarter before jumping into crowdfunding from its fans directly, in which it raised $34.91 million in 2017. This number is down from the slightly-higher $36.11 million from 2016.

Star Citizen raised $17.25 million on Kickstarter, and since that point that made $175.9 million - far less than the $600 million and very quickly growing of PUBG, especially now that it's on the Xbox One/X and planned for "all platforms" in the near future. We can expect PUBG to reach $1 billion in sales in the next couple of months, if not sooner at this rate.

Shaun Escayg spent seven years working at Naughty Dog, but now it appears he's switched over to Square Enix's big new Avengers game.

Tomb Raider dev Crystal Dynamics is currently developing a new original Avengers game as part of a big multi-year agreement between Marvel and games publisher Square Enix. The project, which has been under wraps for a while, represents another huge partnership like EA's current exclusive rights to Star Wars games, so it's only natural that top-tier talent in the games industry are getting recruited for the game. Now Crystal Dynamics has snagged Shaun Escayg, who spent nearly a decade working with Naughty Dog on some of the studio's best games, including The Last of Us, and Uncharteds 4 and Lost Legacy.

Escayg didn't outright confirm he's working on the project, but he did share a particular picture on Instagram that pretty much points the way. He also announced his departure from Naughty Dog on Twitter:

Following its delisting from the NYSE and subsequent bankruptcy filing, peripheral-maker Mad Catz is back for 2018 (and possibly beyond).

Mad Catz was believed to be dead after months and months of tumultuous financials, but now the company is back under a slightly new banner called Mad Catz Global Limited, and plans to release a slew of new gaming hardware peripherals for 2018. In fact the company has announced a trio of new hardware: the Rat Air mouse, the RGB-lit Strike 4 mechanical keyboard, and the Freq 4 gaming headset. All of these new devices (and possibly more) will be shown off at CES 2018 in Las Vegas.

"We couldn't be more excited than to begin 2018 by announcing the return of Mad Catz to the global gaming arena," said Mad Catz director of sales and operations, Selena Chang, in a recent press release.

Turok is finally coming to the Xbox One, at least according to new PEGI ratings.

Night Dive Studios, who are currently remastering the first two original Turok games, have yet to formally announce a release date for the duo's Xbox One release. Right now the remasters are available on PC but console gamers have been waiting a bit to jump back into that weird Jurassic world for some dino-slaying action. The devs have only delivered a tentative "coming sometime soon" timeline, but thanks to the PEGI ratings board, it looks like the remasters are coming soon.

Originally spotted by deals wizard Wario64, PEGI rated Turok for Xbox One two days ago, meaning the game should be coming out soon (maybe in a few weeks, or a few months...but soon). As someone who grew up with the original Turok on Nintendo 64, I can say it'd be cool to jump back in and relive some of those old moments...and I'm curious to see how the graphics hold up on the Xbox One.

Following the big announcement that the Switch is now the fastest-selling console of all-time in the United States, the Japanese console-maker also shares some impressive stats for its first-party games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario: Odyssey.

According to Nintendo's latest figures, more than half of current Switch owners have purchased Super Mario Odyssey. The company says 60% of Switch users own the game, but we're not sure if this is based on the current 10 million console sales milestone or standard "over 4.8 million sales" ten-month figure. If it's the former, that means about six million gamers own Super Mario Odyssey, which is a huge sales figure for the plumber's latest adventure.

Similarly, Zelda: Breath of the Wild enjoys a 55% attach rate with Switch owners, which could put the number as high as 5.5 million copies sold.

According to internal sales figures from Nintendo, the company's new Switch handheld-console hybrid has become the all-time fastest-selling video games console in the United States.

Since its release in March 2017, the Switch has sold 4.8 million units in a 10-month period, making it the fastest-selling system in the U.S. The Switch's fast pace actually beat sales of Nintendo's ultra-popular yesteryear Wii console, which shows just how big this momentum actually is. Nintendo would've likely sold far more units if it weren't hit with supply issues early into the Switch's production and shipment cycle, but the company asserts that these kinks will be worked out with time.

To date the Nintendo Switch has sold more than 10 million units globally, and company President Tatsumi Kimishima hopes the console can reach 20 million sales by the end of the fiscal year ending March 2019.

Brawlout, a Super Smash Bros inspired fighter recently was released onto the Nintendo Switch and actually had quite an impressive opening, attracting over 50,000 players within the first two weeks of its release.

The resemblance between Brawlout and Super Smash Bros is quite uncanny as some of Brawlout's characters feature almost identical move as some characters in Super Smash Bros.

While there might be similarities between Brawlout and Super Smash Bros, this hasn't stopped Nintendo Switch owners from buying the game and having some Super Smash-like games before the inevitable (please, please Nintendo gods) release of Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo Switch.

Monster Hunter: World will be hitting consoles in the next couple of weeks, but PC gamers will have to wait a little longer as the developer has taken to Twitter saying that the PC port of the game won't be released until Autumn.

The official Twitter account of Monster Hunter tweeted the news yesterday, where they said: "#MHWorld is currently being optimized for PC and is planned for an Autumn 2018 release!"

Now that the developer has nearly an entire year until the promised PC port of Monster Hunter: World, we should expect a much smoother and more optimized game. There have been plenty of multi-platform games that have launched over the last few years that have required not just day-one updates, but 50GB+ updates that fix the PC ports up after they are released.

Battlegrounds players on PC will be receiving a small update today that they are encouraged by PUBG Corp to download immediately as this small patch will be fixing the client crashes while in the menu of the game as well as the long-range hits not registering properly.

PUBG was recently updated to v1.0 and ever since it has been filled with problems, with gamers complaining about server lag and rubber banding amongst other problems, but the developer has been quick to smooth out these issues to provide a better Battlegrounds experience.

As the 1.0 patch hit the live servers, Battlegrounds' momentum didn't seem to be slowing down, as a new record milestone of 3 million concurrent players had been reached.

Pokemon GO has finally been confirmed to be on its way to one of the largest gamer bases on the planet, China. John Hanke, the CEO of developer Niantic has told Financial Times that the game is on its way to the country but unfortunately did not reveal any specific time.

John Hanke's development company Niantic is currently working with NetEase to bring Pokemon GO to China. NetEast, the Chinese games company that has previously worked with massive titles such as Blizzard's World of Warcraft and Overwatch and has successfully brought them to China despite the countries extreme regulations.

"We absolutely intend to bring our existing games into China, beyond that, there are opportunities to build games in China, both for China and for the world." said Hanke.

Psyonix, Rocket League developer, has announced on Twitter that their very unique sports car racing game has surpassed a massive 40 million players across all platforms.

For those of you that don't know, Rocket League is a physics-based multi-player game in which players can choose from a variety of vehicles each equipped with unique boosters that propel the cars into scoring goals. Much like a soccer game but with vehicles Rocket League was released in 2015 and has been one of Steam'S most popular games since, currently it is on sale for 40% off over the course of the new year and festive season, coming in at a very cheap $11.99.

"Rocket League now has 40 MILLION players worldwide! Thank you to our ever-growing community for helping us start the new year with such a fantastic milestone."

Just a bit ago the World Health Organization published a listing in the eleventh edition of the International Classification of Disease that video games can be addictive and lead to what's called a 'gaming disorder,' but the U.S.-based games regulator ESA denies these findings.

"The World Health Organization knows that common sense and objective research prove video games are not addictive," the Entertainment Software Association wrote in a recent statement rebuking the WHO's report. "And, putting that official label on them recklessly trivializes real mental health issues like depression and social anxiety disorder, which deserve treatment and the full attention of the medical community. We strongly encourage the WHO to reverse direction on its proposed action."

"Just like avid sports fans and consumers of all forms of engaging entertainment, gamers are passionate and dedicated with their time. Having captivated gamers for more than four decades, more than 2 billion people around the world enjoy video games."

Rumor has it that Capcom is developing Devil May Cry 5, and it could launch during Capcom's FY2020 slate.

We've known for a while now that Devil May Cry director Hideaki Itsuno is making a brand new game, but Japanese publisher Capcom has kept details under wraps. After all, Capcom is releasing one of its most ambitious and biggest games ever with Monster Hunter: World, and announcing Devil May Cry 5 prematurely could be a bit too much. It's best to save those punches, and that's likely why nothing was revealed at E3 2017.

Now Itsuno says that development on the new project is wrapping up, and the game will be fantastic so players should look out for it. "I am sorry that I can not present a new project last year," he wrote on Twitter. "The development of the project is now under climax. I am making a great game so please expect it."

Sales of Battlefront II should rebound in the December holiday month, at least according to the latest prediction from Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter.

Instead of being the big new service game EA had geared it up to be, Battlefront II ended up kicking off a big microtransaction controversy that's since spread to other online service games, such as Destiny 2. The shooter's progression system was so highly infused with the engagement monetization model that players found it to be less of a game in that sense and more of a grindfest--shooter and galactic battle combat notwithstanding. But this won't be enough to deter consumers from buying the game and driving up sales figures for the holiday season, according to an industry analyst.

"Although Star Wars Battlefront II had a weaker-than-expected debut in terms of its domestic physical sell-through, we believe that the loyalty of the Star Wars fan base, the game's appeal as a holiday gift, and the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi on December 15 will result in sales of the game bouncing back in the December retail month," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter told clients earlier this week.

Microsoft's new $499 high-end Xbox One X brings power to the console gaming market, but how do developers see its "monster" performance in comparison to a PC? Crytek has some interesting answers.

With 6TFLOPs of GPU power, 12GB of GDDR5 RAM, and a highly customized AMD Jaguar-based chipset, the Xbox One X is undeniably the most powerful console on the market right now. But of course it pales in comparison with higher-end GPU power found in today's PCs...but what about a standard gaming PC, the kind that most people actually have? According to Crytek Product Manager Collin Bishop, the Xbox One X is about the equivalent of a "standard" PC setup, but only on the GPU end. CPU-wise a basic standard PC will dominate the console.

"The Xbox One X is very comparable to the standard gaming PC on the GPU end. It will be on the CPU end that you will find the PC to still be outshining the console. This will always be the scenario given you can trade out and customize the hardware," Bishop said in a recent interview with GamingBolt.

Lawbreakers, the gravity-defying shooter made by ex-Epic Games director Cliff Bleszinski, has bombed pretty hard...and Nexon isn't so happy about it.

By now you've probably heard about the disappointment that is Lawbreakers' game sales. Shortly after launch the title had very low players on Steam and was likened as just another Overwatch-style FPS. Then PUBG hit and everyone gravitated towards the last-man-standing shooter, leaving games like Lawbreakers in the dust. Now Nexon, the publisher behind Cliffy B's new game, has acknowledged its poor sales and says it's pretty much done acquiring impairment loss because of Lawbreakers.

"We had higher-than-planned expenses due to impairment losses on prepaid royalties related to LawBreakers and incentive bonus expenses related to strong business performance," Nexon wrote in its Q3'17 earnings report filed in November.