Gaming - Page 896

The next Battlefield game will be a new chapter in the fan-favorite Bad Company series, according to rumors posted by a known gamer with insider information.

YouTuber AlmightyDaq, who accurately described Battlefield 1 to a tee months before it was officially revealed, is back with another hot bit of info about the next Battlefield game. Daq has reportedly received more info from inside sources close to development who say Battlefront Bad Company 3 is in the works, and that it'll be set during the Vietnam and Cold War era.

EA has confirmed a new Battlefield game is in currently in development and slated for release during the publisher's Fiscal Year 2019 timeline, which extends from April 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019. The new Battlefield game is set to launch during the same year as BioWare's massive online-based mech shooter Anthem, however EA hasn't confirmed exact details on the DICE-made first-person shooter just yet.

In the wake of controversy, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post has reduced EA's predicted share price and Battlefront II sales...however the game could still make over $100 million from in-game microtransaction purchases.

The hoopla over Battlefront II's in-game purchases has apparently had a strong affect on sales as gamers avoid the title in an effort to send EA a message. The publisher has responded by temporarily removing microtransactions, but according to Post, this is just a temporary measure. Even still the analyst firm feels Battlefront II will miss its original 14 million sales target by more than 2 million units, and has reduced the company's earnings per share price as a result.

"EA has had a challenging Calendar 4Q, beginning with the shutdown of Visceral Games and now Battlefront 2 (BF2) controversy," Post wrote to clients on Monday. But there's a silver lining for EA: Battlefront II's poor reception sets the company's fiscal 2019 timeline up for a big upswing, especially with games like Anthem and the next Battlefield game on the way.

Now that the new test server for Battlegrounds is live, gamers are seeing just what the developer has been working on apart from the new map, weapons, performance improvements and more.

The developers have been working closely on the detail of the female character in the new PUBG test servers, with one gamer noticing that the female characters have been animated with a camel toe. You can see the difference between the normal servers and the test server, above. Interesting.

PUBG's new female characters and their enhanced lady bits were noticed by character artist Liz Edwards, who is responsible for the comparison above. PUBG's community went into overdrive, seeing PlayerUnknown himself - Brendan Greene, replying on Twitter. Greene said:

Outlast developer Red Barrel will be brining their franchise to the Nintendo Switch, promising a release window of Q1 2018. This was discovered on the Outlast Facebook page by a post that was made by The Red Barrel team, explaining that a DLC for Outlast 2 will not be released despite the many requests, on a positive note though, confirmation for the production of Outlast 3 has been made.

Red Barrel explain in their post that Outlast 2 was specifically designed to make players feel like "a rat in a maze, without any knowledge of what's outside the maze" meaning that there will not be DLC for Outlast 2 but instead Red Barrel "at some point, make an Outlast 3."

In the meantime of waiting for Outlast 3 Red Barrel gave a teaser to a new project the studio is working on, saying that they are "Currently we're working on something a lot of you have been asking for... It won't be a sequel to Outlast or Outlast 2, but it will be a distinct experience set in the Outlast universe. We can't say more right now, we first need to make sure we can make it work. Like I mentioned, we strive to be risk-takers and this one is a pretty big challenge. If all goes well, we'll soon be able to reveal more."

EA experienced just a little backlash when it released Star Wars: Battlefront II, and that backlash was big enough to cause a hefty dent in their sales against a juggernaut like Call of Duty: WWII.

Looking at the sales of both games in November alone, NPD's sales figures for the games are surprising, which noted: "US console video game sales rose 9 percent in November from a year ago to $842 million, led by Call of Duty: WWII, with 4.4 million sold, according to NPD. But it was a disappointing month for Electronic Arts, whose high-profile Star Wars Battlefront II, sold just 882,000 units".

882,000 versus 4.4 million is a huge difference, and they're only in the US - so they could be worse when you take all of the other markets into consideration. Another point is that COD: WWII was released two weeks earlier on November 3, with Battlefront II being unleashed on November 17. But then we have the fact that both franchises are well-known and well-established juggernauts in their own rights, so a two-week lead to COD: WWII shouldn't have seen a 5x increase in sales.

The amount of hours I pumped into MechWarrior 2 back in the day (how good was the opening cutscene) was insane, so the news of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries has me excited. Check out the trailer below:

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries will be released on the PC on December 2018, something developer Piranha Games announced at the recent Mech_Con 2017 event in Vancouver, Canada. MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries will feature a single-player campaign, the first MechWarrior game to have a single-player mode in over 15 years. There's even 4-player co-op which is going to have MechWarrior fans super excited.

Here's the full gist on MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries:

The release of Battlegrounds on the Xbox One is upon us, with it launching on December 12 - but now we have exact times for all of the regions it'll be released on courtesy of Major Nelson.

Major Nelson shared the details on his blog, with the US receiving Battlegrounds at 9PM PST or 5PM UTC.

Not only that but Microsoft also said it had worked with the Xbox Advanced Technology Group and Gears of War developer The Coalition on the controller setup for PUBG. Microsoft said the controller setup would provide "enough flexibility to survive in the hostile battleground and to effectively manage in-game equipment on-the-fly".

It's official: after five years Soul Calibur is coming back, and the sixth chapter has a set 2018 release window.

At the TGA 2017 awards show Bandai Namco announced Soul Calibur VI with a surprise trailer. The new game will have "all-new gameplay systems" such as the new Reversal Edge system as well as PvE, couch fighting action, and online tournaments. Interestingly enough the new game travels back to 16th century to explore the first Soul Calibur with a "diverse lineup of new and returning characters with their unique fighting styles."

"The fast and kinetic gameplay of SOULCALIBUR is on full display in SOULCALIBUR VI," said Mark Religioso, Brand Manager for BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc. "A stellar lineup of characters and weapons, combined with a simple control layout means gamers of all skill levels can jump into the action and decimate the competition."

Hideo Kojima dropped a new trailer for Death Stranding at TGA 2017 that takes us deeper down the rabbit hole of his dark imagination.

When Death Stranding was revealed last year it really shook up the gaming world. Here was a brand new game from the Metal Gear Solid creator that amplified Kojima's cryptic teasing nature while announcing something quite different. Now a year later we know quite a bit about the game: it's an open world action-game that aims at defying all known genres, it has a weird otherworldly motif, Death Stranding is being built in Guerrilla's Decima engine, and the latest trailer gives even more clues--clues that are, of course, hidden behind cryptic footage.

There's many parts of the new footage that make sense. We first see a crashed expedition rover with three men, making us believe they crossed over to the "Upside Down" (sorry I had to) where they face some pretty wicked shadow creatures. In sheer Kojima style the game takes on a spectacular cinematic scope that closely resembles both an extremely creative horror movie and something out of a lunatic's bad dream. But as Kojima said Death Stranding isn't a horror game.

From Software is making yet another bizarre-looking game, and we've just received our first glimpse at it (not that the footage told us very much though).

Last night during The Game Awards 2017 show host Geoff Keighley showed off a small 30-second window into From Software's new game. The tiny clip was indeed quite odd and has sparked lots of speculation on what the esteemed Bloodborne and Dark Souls dev is working on...but I have a feeling people are off the mark.

The teaser itself gives a few small hits: the unannounced game seems to have an Asian bent due to the scroll in the background, however what exactly that weird...thing...is no one really knows. I speculated that it looks like a weird biological-machine entity as the bone structure somewhat resembles a tibia. Maybe From Software is working on a game about ninjas who are brought back to life to kill again?

Ubisoft has gone and ruined a bunch of gamers' dreams, with the announcement of a delay to the release of the much anticipated Far Cry 5.

Far Cry 5 has been delayed from late-February 2018 to March 27, 2018 - a one-month delay. Ubisoft Montreal need the additional development time to "make some additional improvements that will bring the best, most ambitious Far Cry experience in line with the team's original vision".

Ubisoft didn't stop the delay train with Far Cry 5 either, with the company also delaying The Crew 2. The Crew 2 was due on March 16 but Ubisoft is now playing games and being vague with the release window of The Crew 2 saying it'll be released in the first half of Ubisoft's fiscal year. Cool.

PUBG is coming to Dying Light...well sort of.

Today Techland announced that their lauded Dying Light zombie game would get a standalone expansion called Bad Blood, which drops players in a multiplayer battle royale experience set in the post-apocalyptic dead-world of the game. What's interesting about Bad Blood, however, is that it's not trying to blatantly copy PUBG: Techland affirms the expansion will have both PVP and PVE elements, which makes me think zombies will be in the mix too.

Bad Blood will have three different modes including:

Capcom today announced the Devil May Cry HD Collection, which should round out the publisher's FY2018 slate quite nicely.

Earlier in the year Capcom promised to resurrect older IPs in an effort to fortify game sales and buffer its release slate. Now with the recently announced Mega Man 11 (yes really), the ports of Mega Man X on Switch, and the freshly announced Devil May Cry HD Collection, we're seeing the fruits of that promise start to take shape. The HD Collection was originally released for PS3 and Xbox 360 some years ago, and now it's making the rounds again.

The latest Devil May Cry remaster collection will include the first three games (DMC1, DMC2 and the DMC3 special edition) with revamped HD graphics on modern systems including the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, with a release date penned for March 13, 2018. This is right before Capcom's March 31, 2018 cutoff date for the current fiscal year, and this isn't a mistake: it should help the games-maker bolster yearly sales and earnings while kicking off FY2019 with a nice software boost.

Sony's ring of first-party studios are known for releasing diverse games--a move that's increasingly different than the normal range of Call of Duty's, Battlefronts, and PUBG's of the gaming world.

PS4 exclusives are usually quite different than anything else you find on the market. Sony has helped release quite a few exclusives that are all unique, including Bloodborne, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Hideo Kojima's upcoming game Death Stranding. Exclusives account for a percentage of why gamers buy the console itself, and according to IDC Director for Gaming and VR Lewis Ward, Sony's penchant for deep, immersive storytelling is a unique position for the industry.

"Well, like Nintendo, Sony has a massive worldwide game development team. Sony of course makes movies and music and other forms of entertainment, so understanding story structure and character development is in their DNA. If you notice, they really don't make free-to-play games that are open-ended and therefore have no clear conclusion other than player burnout," Mr. Ward said in a recent interview with GamingBolt.

The PlayStation 4 games console has surpassed 70 million units ahead of the big Christmas season, Sony today confirmed.

In a recent press release Sony announced that the PS4 has sold through 70.6 million units globally since the system launched in 2013, up an impressive 10.2 million units from the original 60.4 million sales from June. This milestone is also accompanied by a huge attach rate, which has grown incrementally since June as well.

Sony says that over 617.8 million PlayStation 4 games have been sold digitally and at retail, which puts the attach rate at a minimum of 8.7%. This means that PS4 owners have about at least 9 games for the console since the system released four years ago. The Japanese games-maker further re-affirms commitment to the PlayStation VR platform with a neat statistic: 150 titles have been released for the virtual reality headset to date.

Epic Games has currently been in the process of suing two Fortnite players for cheating, one of which is a 14 year old boy and another is Charles Vraspir. The mother of the 14 year old boy has responded with a letter being sent to the court claiming that there was no evidence of her son modifying the game and cheating, instead she has accused Epic Games for violating Delaware laws by publicly naming her son.

Epic Games has claimed in response to the mothers letter that the company has no prior knowledge of the defendants age at the time of filing. According to TorrentFreak this is what is stated in court "We did not violate Rule 5.2(a) or Local Civil Rule 17.2 because we did not know when we filed the papers that Defendant is a minor."

Charles Vraspir the other case Epic Games is fighting has had a settlement agreed upon, if Vraspir violates any of the following "creating, writing, developing, advertising, promoting, and/or distributing anything that infringes Epic's works now or hereafter protected by any of Epic's copyrights" a $5000 penalty will have to be paid. This same figure is thought to be likely for the 14 year old boy as Epic Games has not motivation to bankrupt these players, so I think a hefty fine will stop them from ruining the game for others.

Niko Partners, the Chinese analytic firm has had Daniel Ahmad an employee reveal on Twitter that Nintendo games will be running on the NVIDIA Shield.

The games that will be available are Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Bros. Wii, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Punch-Out!! This partnership between NVIDIA, Nintendo and the Chinese online platform called iQiyi is what is currently pushing Nintendo's games to be featured on NVIDIA's Shields throughout the Chinese market.

Unfortunately this is a China only deal but with the current price of the Nintendo games going for RMB 68, means when the currency is exchanged into USD Nintendo games suddenly only become $10.28. It is unclear how this move to the China will effect the rest of the worlds market, but bringing Nintendo games to the NVIDIA Shield in clear 1080p to reportedly 300 million gamers might just be the first steps into a world wide Nintendo games on the Shield.

Hawaiian state Representative Chris Lee (D) recently lambasted Electronic Arts and Disney for creating an "online Star Wars gambling casino" with Battlefront II, causing yet another peak of the dreaded controversy. Now Rep. Lee is calling on gamers to call legislators to put pressure on the industry.

Microtransactions and lootboxes aren't anything new in the industry. Most online live service games have them in some form whether its cosmetics or blind bag style lootboxes, these optional purchase models allow an engagement-churning cycle that funds a steady stream of new content to keep players engaged over months or years. But without the disclosure of odds, such as in China, publishers have a sort of free reign--it's almost like a new frontier of sorts. But Hawaii State Rep. Chris Lee wants to bring the law to the Wild West of gaming.

In a recent video State Representative Lee is asking gamers and consumers to stand up to lootboxes and "predatory gambling practices" so the games industry has the opportunity to change. Of course this would disrupt a billion-dollar market that keeps major publishers like EA, Take-Two, Ubisoft and Activision raking in earnings quarter after quarter, and depending on the regulation, the industry could be hit with big growing pains as it adapts towards a new model.

The new desert map for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is nearly here, with the developers showing it off in full with some beautiful new screenshots and details on the cities you'll find in Miramar.

Miramar is a completely new map that is very different to the 8km x 8km map we know and love from Battlegrounds in Erangel, with Miramar featuring completely different terrain and a totally new feel. Even the veteran PUBG players will have to adapt, learning new play styles from the fresh new desert map.

Battlegrounds' new Miramar map will launch with the upcoming v1.0 update that is expected to roll out in late-December. For now, here's what you can expect from Miramar and its many cities and hotspots:

EA refuses to stop stealing headlines, and this time the publisher may take a queue from gamers and not flip the microtransaction switch back on. But...that probably won't be the end of it.

Like its competitors Ubisoft, Activision, Blizzard and Take-Two, EA and microtransactions go hand-in-hand. But it's extremely important that these in-game purchases are scaled in a way so gamers don't feel cornered into a pay-to-win scheme, which is something Battlefront II is accused of. In the wake of an ongoing controversy that sees countless consumers, gamers and customers pushing back against EA's "predatory lootboxes," the publisher says it's learned a lot and might just fold its hand.

"Clearly we're still focused on listening the consumer and their wants, which are evolving constantly. But we're working on improving the progression system. We turned the MTX off as an opportunity to work on the progression system inside the game--we're continuing to update that, and I think there's and update this week and again next week," EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said during the 37th NASDAQ Investors Conference.