Gaming - Page 895

Battlegrounds has been the most successful game of 2017, making the PC stand out the platform of choice for the hottest game of the year, but now it's time for Xbox One gamers to get in on the chicken dinner fun.

PUBG launched onto the Xbox One and Xbox One X consoles on December 12 quickly racking up 500,000 concurrent users, but that has now boosted up to 1 million people playing the game in the first 48 hours of PUBG's release on Xbox. Surprising, considering how bad PUBG runs on both consoles.

Microsoft went a step further, bundling Battlegrounds with the Xbox One X for a limited time - December 17-31, which will only boost those numbers through the roof.

If you buy an Xbox One X for $499 after December 17, you'll get a free copy of 2017's biggest online multiplayer game.

Microsoft snagging up timed exclusivity for PUBG on Xbox was a big move, but the game still has some issues here and there--of course it's not yet finished and was mostly made by Microsoft's own in-house team with the help of Bluehole. I recently predicted that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds could end up being the Xbox One X's biggest system-seller, especially during the system's post-November launch period.

While exact sales on the Xbox version haven't been extrapolated just yet, PUBG has sold over 20 million copies to date on PC and remains a continually strengthening force in the games industry. Sadly the game doesn't currently tap the Xbox One X's raw power: PUBG runs at 30FPS on all Xbox consoles, regardless if you own the higher-end $499 model.

Call of Duty WWII is now the best-selling game of 2017 in the United States, according to the latest data published by the NPD Group.

Following the massive hype around the triumphant "boots on the ground" return of Call of Duty, it's not much surprise that the WWII shooter has generated serious revenue since its launch in November. The game amassed $500 million in revenues in its opening weekend, signalling a clear return to form for the franchise. Now we're starting to see the big results from key analyst firms like NPD Group, who affirms Call of Duty WWII

"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.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare developer Infinity Ward will open a new studio in Krakow, Poland, the studio today announced.

The new Polish branch will focus on research and development to likely push the bar and accelerate rich new feature sets for the studio's next Call of Duty game, which may be out in 2019. Following the disappointing reception and sales of Infinite Warfare, it's fair to say the pressure's on at Infinity Ward. The Krakow-based team will also coordinate with the Los Angeles studio and help in general development. Principal Rendering Engineer Michal Drobot will lead the new Infinity Ward Poland team.

"We're thrilled to announce the expansion of our development capabilities with the opening of Infinity Ward Poland," said Dave Stohl, Studio Head for Infinity Ward. "We're building a world-class R&D studio that will tap into the creative local game development culture and talent in Poland. This expansion will further solidify our position as one of the most dedicated and accomplished teams in the industry. We look forward to great things to come."

While Nintendo's internal first-party team has yet to confirm another DLC pack for Breath of the Wild, the developers have tons of ideas and newly sparked motivation to continually evolve the franchise.

It appears Zelda director Hidemaro Fujibayashi is having a blast with the series, especially with Breath of the Wild's new Champion's Ballad DLC (which adds a snazzy motorbike for Link to ride around Hyrule). Nintendo's new season pass DLC plan for the Zelda series has breathed new life into the possibilities, and now the devs have the freedom to add in new things while adjusting old features to boot. This freedom has given Fujibayashi a kind of vigor to bring new content to the series, which could spark all kinds of interesting things for the next game (or DLC).

"I can't say at this point if it will be in sequels or in continuations, or what form it will take, but I definitely have lots of ideas and lots of motivation right now," Fujibayashi said in a recent interview with IGN.

Cartoon Networks Adventure Time has had a new announcement, a full-fledged open world RPG is set to be released in the land of Ooo in just the early months of 2018. Called, Adventure Time: Pirates of Enchiridon will be taking place in a flooded land of Ooo which appears to be taking inspiration from the very classic The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

Players will be able to play as four different characters, Finn, Jake, Marceline and BMO. All of which are completely upgradeable and will be able to use items, cast spell, drink potions and of course battle foes in the games fast-paced combat. On Outright Games website they give a description of what will be featured in the game as well as reassuring the audience that this is in fact a true Adventure Time story and is also voiced by the TV shows cast.

"In this brand new game, Finn, Jake, Marceline, and BMO face their most piratical adventure yet after a totally bizonkers flood plunges their home into watery chaos. It's up to them to set sail on the seas of Ooo and find the dingwad responsible!"

Now that Battlegrounds has launched on the Xbox One/X consoles, we have some first-few-days player numbers of over 496,000 gamers meaning that the console version of PUBG is doing extremely well so far.

The PC version of Battlegrounds has over 2.6 million concurrent gamers, but there are tens of millions of Xbox One/X owners out in the wild as well. Nearly 500K gamers in the first 48 hours of PUBG launching on Xbox One/X is pretty damn good, especially considering the abysmal FPS performance of the game on both consoles.

Take-Two Interactive, the same publisher that's responsible for Grand Theft Auto, has opened a new indie games label called Private Division, and Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian Entertainment is one of the choice developers into the fold.

Back in May sources told TweakTown that Obsidian Entertainment is working on a new game with Fallout creator Tim Cain at the helm. The game, sources told us, would essentially be Obsidian's own version of Fallout, but details were light; there's no guarantee it'll herald the classic cRPG adventure of yore. Today Take-Two Interactive announced that it will publish a bevy of new games from key independent developers, including Obsidian, and that the developer is working on an unannounced RPG led by Fallout co-creators Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky.

"Private Division will publish several upcoming titles based on new IP from renowned industry creative talent, including the previously announced Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey from Panache Digital Games, a studio led by the creator of the Assassin's Creed franchise Patrice Désilets; an unannounced RPG currently codenamed Project Wight from The Outsiders, a studio founded by ex-DICE developers David Goldfarb and Ben Cousins; an unannounced RPG from Obsidian Entertainment led by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, co-creators of Fallout; and an unannounced sci-fi first-person shooter from V1 Interactive, a studio founded by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto. Additionally, Private Division is the publisher for Kerbal Space Program, which Take-Two acquired in May, 2017," reads the press release.

PAYDAY 2 has now been officially confirmed to be headed to the Nintendo Switch next year as the community of 5.4 million gamers will plan to grow exponentially, this growth will begin when the g me is released on February 23, 2018.

PAYDAY 2 will be released on the Switch in Australia and Europe on the 23rd of February, followed by a North and South America launch on the 27th of the same month. First launched in 2011, PAYDAY 2 has gotten the attention of quite a few gamers, 16 milliuon copies of the game have been sold across SteamOS, Xbox360, PS3, PS4, Xbox One and of course PC. PAYDAY 2 has already appeared on Nintendo's website and has been labeled as "coming winter 2017", Nintendo has also given a small description of the game for those who have been living under a rock in the gaming community

"PAYDAY 2 is an action-packed, four-player co-op shooter where you rob banks and get paid. Up to four friends co-operate on the hits and as the crew progresses the jobs become bigger, better and more rewarding. Along with earning more money and becoming a legendary criminal Crime does pay - use your funds to customize your character with new skillsets that change the way you play and kit them out with their own guns and gear."

Ghost Recon Wildlands players will be happy to hear news that the Predator will be joining the ranks in a special event that runs between December 14 and early January.

Ubisoft Senior Producer Nouredine Abboud explained the news in a statement: "At Ubisoft Paris, we have been fans of the Predator for a long time and are thrilled to bring such an iconic character to our game. The challenge is full of references to the original Predator movie, and we cannot wait to see the reaction of our players!".

The upcoming release of Predator content will include both solo and co-op options, where you'll have to defeat the warrior in order to unlock exclusive items like a mask with Predator vision. There's also the Predator Pack available, with 15 new customized items that include movie-inspired weapons and a close combat mode.

Back when Star Citizen was first announced and became a Kickstarter star, the game was powered by CryEngine, with developer Cloud Imperium Games moving over to Amazon's Lumberyard engine in 2015.

Crytek has recently filed a complaint against CIG, with the company stating they agreed to a below-market rate of their license to use CryEngine in Star Citizen, with Cloud Imperium Games agreeing to prominently display the CryEngine logo in their game. Crytek alleges that the use of their CryEngine branding in Star Citizen was a "critical component" of the agreement between the two companies.

Crytek goes as far as saying Chris Roberts himself "publicly sought to minimize Crytek's contribution to Star Citizen".

Now that Battlegrounds is released onto the Xbox One and Xbox One X consoles after months of teases, we know how much of an absolute mess it is on Microsoft's two consoles. The Xbox One X version of PUBG is definitely the superior one out of the two, with the Xbox One version of the game slipping down to just 4FPS at times.

PUBG is heavily CPU-bound which sees the Xbox One X running at 4K on Medium settings, while the slower Xbox One runs at 1080p, both versions with 100% screen scale and 90-degree field-of-view. You can find these settings by plugging a keyboard into the Xbox One X and pressing 'o'.

Driving around in a vehicle will see the Xbox One X with 26FPS average or so, while the Xbox One is much choppier with an average of 20FPS or so. In the cities, PUBG runs much smoother on the Xbox One X at 30FPS, while the Xbox One varies between 24-30FPS, but varies city to city thanks to the lack of full-map optimization at a game engine level.

In less than two months of availability, Nintendo's latest smartphone game Animal Crossing Pocket Camp has raked in $17 million in revenues, analyst firm Apptopia reports.

Despite racking up 25 million downloads, Apptopia isn't particularly impressed with the game's total revenues of $17 million. In fact the firm notes that Animal Crossing Pocket Camp may not come close to Nintendo's other smartphone games, Super Mario Run, which started off slow out of the gate but apparently delivered consistent earnings, and Fire Emblem Heroes, a landmark successful game that taps the "gacha" business model. Apptopia cites Animal Crossing will be third in place because it doesn't have a competitive online mode of play.

"Even though the revenue is not impressive, Animal Crossing had a much stronger launch than Fire Emblem did in terms of downloads," Apptopia told GamesBeat. "It has a much stronger worldwide brand and player base, whereas Fire Emblem is more popular in Japan."

Following the big success of the Nintendo Switch handheld-console hybrid, which has sold through 10 million units in less than a year, the Japanese games-maker is now taking aim at bolstering its mobile gaming lineup.

In order to build up a strong smartphone gaming business, Nintendo is looking to build new partnerships outside of the one it currently holds with DeNA, sources tell The Wall Street Journal. Nintendo's push into smartphone gaming is rather fledgling and the company has made a few mistakes along the way, namely with the improper handling of its Super Mario Run mobile game, which uses the company's most instantly recognizable and high-profile character in a pay-to-play runner.

Nintendo's plans with the smartphone gaming business have traditionally been to bring awareness to its console and handheld hardware and software rather than make money directly. However this plan seems to have shifted with the likes of the newly successful Animal Crossing Pocket Camp and older Fire Emblem Heroes, which both offer in-game purchases. According to analyst firm Newzoo the global games market will breach $108 billion in 2017, and mobile gaming will make up the lion's share of 42%, or $46.1 billion this year.

Capcom is celebrating the 30th anniversary of one of its best-selling franchise with a massive 12-game collection.

The newly announced Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection combines 12 classic fighting games (half of them include all the infamous variations of of Street Fighter II) into one huge, affordable package. I can't help but wondering why this wasn't tried out earlier in the year when Capcom released the rather lackluster Ultra Street Fighter II on Switch. Now Capcom has doubled down on Switch support, and plans to help kick off their new fiscal year with a bevy of releases including Monster Hunter World and the new Street Fighter Collection.

The collection will have full online multiplayer and a host of extras including a music gallery, concept art, and much more. The packed release is slated for a May 2018 launch for $40 on Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch.

Beloved 2006 ARPG Titan Quest is making a big jump to consoles in 2018, THQ Nordic today announced.

Titan Quest's console port is actually coming to all modern consoles including the PS4, Xbox One, and even the Nintendo Switch. The latter is a very welcome surprise and I'm wondering if it'll have some form of couch or on-the-go co-op action, especially given the Switch's transforming nature. The publisher notes that the Switch version doesn't yet have a release date and will likely miss the March 2018 timeline for the other versions.

THQ Nordic is also offering two editions of the game: the standard edition, which comes with the base game and the Immortal Throne expansion, for $30; and a collector's edition (PS4, Xbox One, PC) for $120 that includes a Greek helmet replica, a special box, and a notepad.

According to a report fron CNET which cited an email from Atari that they sent out today to consumers, the home console will be available to pre-order this Thursday. Since its official reveal in July, the Ataribox has been spotted in two variants, a wood-like appeal or a black and red modern finish.

The Ataribox will be featuring Linux and a custom AMD processor, making it usable for both mid-range PC titles as well as classic Atari games. It has been reported by the Verge that Atari plans on selling the console at a price range between $250 and $300 making it quite an affordable pick up for any fan of the old Atari games.

The concrete release date for the Ataribox is currently unknown, but as we come closer to Thursday we are more likely to acquire some information regarding the early next year release.

Over a year after the release of the Xbox One S and Xbox One X, YouTube has finally updated to allow streaming of the selling point of these consoles, 4K streaming.

Microsoft released their Xbox One S console as a step-up from the original Xbox One, the selling point being not only the ability to get close to playing games in native 4K but also to be able to stream video in 4K. Following the release of the Xbox One S was the Xbox One X, it was released this year and came with hardware upgrades but not until this update was rolled out to the two consoles couldn't stream 4K video.

It is quite surprising that it took until now for Microsoft to roll out this update to their consoles, considering 4K video streaming has been available on YouTube since 2015. More importantly, the option of having 4K video streaming as a service was a massive consumer draw point for the console which has been returned by Microsoft as a late update feature.

Hideo Kojima's latest game Death Stranding started out quite cryptic and strange, but with time (and a few new trailers and quotes from Kojima himself), the bizarre has been broken down into consumable little tidbits.

"I'm trying to make something different. How to show that, how to have people see that, that's something I'm trying to figure out," Kojima said in a recent interview with IGN. Based on the latest trailer for the game shown off at The Game Awards 2017, we'd say the gaming guru has achieved this feat (and then some).

But what about specifics? Well for one, death isn't the end in Death Stranding. When you die in the game you just open a doorway to another place, a kind of purgatory of sorts or a temporary way station. You can always return to the real-world (or the world you were just in) after you die. "One of the themes of this game is life and death. So I want people to realize that when they die in the game, that isn't the end."

After considerable fan push-back (and the wake of the big Battlefront II controversy), Bungie admits they messed up by using the Curse of Osiris expansion to lock gamers out of Destiny 2 content they previously had access to. Some things are getting "fixed," but mostly Bungie is reverting to the old original Destiny 1 temporary lock-out model.

I still remember when Bungie did this in the original Destiny: when the first expansion hit, daily and weekly activities were often locked behind expansion-only maps or areas. So if you didn't buy the latest expansion there would always be a chance that key activities were simply not available to you. As I predicted, Bungie did the same thing with Destiny 2. But now they're doing something different: fixing some of the issues while doing more of the same.

Over the past few months Destiny 2 players have felt quite jaded. The game's progression system isn't so rewarding, and the Eververse is frustrating people. Many are questioning why they still play. The game's latest Curse of Osiris expansion, which Activision affirms will be the first of many content/expansion updates, was a big deal to many and seen as a way to add more value to the game. But alas Bungie actually ended up taking away from non-expansion owners (again), this time the Prestige-level Raids and Nightfalls, as well as the Trials of the Nine game mode.