Gaming - Page 902

With Sony's PlayStation 4 and now Microsoft's new $499 Xbox One X, we've seen console-makers shift towards next-gen resets and more towards an iterative cycle. But how soon until the next major console launches? Ubisoft might have an answer.

In the next two years we might see Sony debut its next-gen PlayStation 5, which may be a whole new generation powered by discrete graphics, or another iterative design that joins the PS4 family. That's what Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot thinks. When asked about how Ubisoft will support PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X during the Q&A session of its earnings brief, Mr. Guillemot said: "We think we have about 2 years before something else is coming." In this case something else is a new console.

Ubisoft let slip crucial details of the Nintendo Switch--something I covered way back in the NX days--but here the company isn't privy to insider knowledge. Guillemot goes on to say that Ubisoft has no actual information on when a new system will come out--this is just the company's educated guess.

As Nintendo's new Switch handheld-console hybrid continues strong sales momentum, analyst firms and holding companies are adjusting their predictions. One such firm, Nomura Securities, predicts the Switch will surpass the Wii's sales by 15% by the year 2023.

In light of Nintendo's latest Q2 financials, Japanese securities group Nomura Securities has updated its long-term sales forecast for the Nintendo Switch console to 115.8 million units by the fiscal year ending March 2023, reports The Wall Street Journal's Takashi Mochizuki. This estimate would firmly set the Switch between two of Nintendo's all-time bestselling hardware: 14.95 million unit sales above 2006's breakout Wii system and 38.22 million unit sales below 2004's superstar DS handheld.

This isn't the only huge prediction made by analysts. Swiss brokerage firm Credit Suisse made an outperform forecast of 130 million Switch sales by March 2022. On its forecast the group says it "expects the Switch to sell like a handheld," and the firm's peak-year sales have been upgraded from 25 million to 31 million units.

Xbox One X is now on the market for $499 in the US, with Phil Spencer doing the rounds with the media and teasing during an interview with Bloomberg that the company is working on a new streaming service.

Spencer told Bloomberg: "Microsoft will probably debut a streaming service that doesn't require a console for some types of content in the next three years". According to the report, Microsoft has been working on the streaming service for the last five years, but deemed it "too costly" and was never pushed into the market.

It's no surprise that Microsoft is working on a streaming service again, now that the Xbox family of consoles has grown by another three units since the original game streaming prototypes the company was working on over the last few years. We could expect a $20 a month or so per month cost for an Xbox streaming service, as Microsoft would have to price it against Sony's PlayStation Now streaming service, which lets gamers stream PS3 and PS4 games starting at $20 per month.

Microsoft has officially released its new Xbox One X console, with Xbox boss Phil Spencer talking with the media and had some pretty big words about the power of the Xbox One X.

Spencer said: "This is for the discerning connoisseur of gaming has a 4K television, [who] wants to see the absolute best visuals. This box is definitely targeted toward the customer that buys the most and plays the most".

Microsoft built the Xbox One X as a beefy upgrade and flagship console in the Xbox family, topping the 4K Blu-ray infused Xbox One S, and the original Xbox One console. Spencer said having multiple consoles on the market is all about giving gamers the choice, whether they want to spend $200 or $350 or $650 on a console.

Since shifting towards service games and unifying its core Xbox LIVE framework across multiple devices, Microsoft's gaming division makes less and less first-party titles every year (case in point: the Xbox One X's rather paltry launch of exclusive content). But there's a reason for that: the company is focusing more on making recurring revenues from lucrative services (Xbox LIVE, Mixer), selling games on Xbox Store, and simply buying up popular IPs and development studios to make games for them.

When the Xbox One bombed hard in 2013, Microsoft had to change how they played the game to stay competitive against Sony (that's a massively simplified version of events but let's go with it for sake of illustration). Microsoft knew it couldn't be Sony at the hardware game, so it didn't even try. Instead the company unified Xbox LIVE across mobiles, PCs, and consoles by essentially turning it into a billion-dollar service that not only sold games, but also made money from advertising, streaming, subscriptions, in-game purchases as well as monetized engagement.

Microsoft has been playing into its strengths rather than chasing Sony's tail, and it's worked out quite well: the Xbox gaming segment pulled in $9 billion in revenues last year, and almost $2 billion in Microsoft's Q1 period

Ever since Microsoft started Xbox LIVE Rewards years ago I always wanted one thing: to convert my hard-earned achievements into something tangible that directly fueled my gaming library. Sure Xbox LIVE Rewards on its own let you complete objectives to earn MS Points, but there wasn't a direct way to cash in your achievements. That might change in the near future.

Sony recently implemented a feature that allows gamers to trade in their trophies earned on PlayStation Network towards PS Store credit. The measure is a great way to further engagement and keep players active and "sticky" in the subscription network. Frankly I'm surprised Microsoft didn't get to this first--they're the ones that typically find unique ways to engage millions of players with creative additions.

But Microsoft might actually emulate Sony's trophy cash-in program after all. In a recent Tweet, Xbox executive Phil Spencer indicated that he'd like to give the program a try: "Sounds like a cool feature, I'm going to give it a try. Competition is a good thing, keeps us all working hard," Xbox exec Phil Spencer said on Twitter.

Diablo II is one of my favorite games of all time--when Diablo III shipped with so many of its predecessor's features cut out, I was quite frustrated--and I'm always open to the idea of re-visiting the game at some point. There's just a few major problems standing in the way: Diablo II is most fun with at least 2,000 or 3,000 active players on each realm (US West, US East, Europe, etc)...and right now there's just a bunch of hackers and bots.

According to Blizzard, who has been believed to be making a Diablo II remaster for quite some time, a return to the beloved PC game won't come any time soon. Just as hackers stand in the way of a proper userbase to fuel great trading economies and Ladder play, they're actually prohibiting Blizzard from naturally re-vamping the game. As someone who played D2 for a long, long time, I can say that bots do have their advantages (Baal and Chaos runs for instance) but I never personally used them. But spammers and hackers that flood the trading floors with dupes items that poof? That's a huge problem.

"With Diablo the big one is the botters and the spamming is out of control, [and people are asking] could we please fix that. Keep rolling seasons but maybe eventually be good enough at combating them that you see real names at the top of the leaderboard again," Peter Stilwell, senior producer on the Classic Games team, told PCGamesN in a recent interview.

343 Industries have just released a patch that enables crossplay support between Xbox One and PC gamers in Halo Wars 2, with crossplay support in the Campaign, Blitz Firefight, Terminus Firefight, Custom Games, and all unranked playlists.

Halo Wars 2's crossplay feature will be pushed out in phases, so that 343i can keep control over it and make sure it's working properly and not filled with problems. The new patch for Halo Wars 2 also includes one fix for the PC, and a new feature. If you own the Windows 10 version, it will auto-download the patch. As for the patch notes, check them out here.

Halo Wars 2 November 2nd Patch Release Notes

3D Realms is well-known for making excellent classic games like Duke Nukem 3D and the original Shadow Warrior. Now the studio is making a new game using the classic BUILD engine that powered these beloved MS-DOS games.

Game dev 3D Realms is currently looking for gamers to playtest an "unannounced BUILD Engine title," and hopes to select at least 50 playtesters to try it out. If selected, you'll have to sign an NDA. This is really happening folks!

"We're looking for play-testers for the next 3D Realms title. An unannounced game using the classic "Build Engine", used to develop legendary MS-DOS games such as Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, Shadow Warrior etc. A brand new game built by an amazing crew," the studio said on its Facebook page.

During its annual BlizzCon event, Blizzard confirmed that most of StarCraft II's content will be available for free (but not all of it).

Starting November 14, PC gamers can download and play StarCraft II's launch Wings of Liberty campaign as well as a smattering of co-op and multiplayer content for free. Not everything will be available for the low cost of nothing--Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void, and Nova Covert Ops campaigns will be sold separately for $14.99 a piece, or bundled for $39.99.

"In other words, you can now play all of StarCraft II's multiplayer, every Co-op Commander, and the entire first campaign in the single-player story, for free."

During its annual BlizzCon 2017 event Blizzard announced a bevy of new announcements for its slate of games, including a fresh expansion for its landmark MMORPG World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft's new Battle for Azeroth expansion sees the fantasy world once again riven by the Alliance vs Horde conflict, and gamers must scour the farthest reaches of Azeroth to find new allies in the boiling war. The expac will bring a ton of new changes including a new 120 level cap, two new kingdoms to explore--Zandalar for the Horde and Kul Tiras for the Alliance--as well as new areas across uncharted islands, and the ability to infuse your armor and gear with the new resource Azerite. New dungeons and vaults will also be included, and everyone who purchases the expansion will jump to level 110 instantly.

"Conflict is at the heart of the Warcraft saga, and in Battle for Azeroth, tensions that have been simmering for a long time escalate into all-out war," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "World of Warcraft players are incredibly passionate about the characters and factions they identify with in the game, and this expansion will make them prouder than ever to declare their allegiance to the Horde or to the Alliance."

Runic Games, the developer behind games like Torchlight and Hob, has been shut down.

After nine years of developing games, publisher Perfect World Entertainment has shuttered the doors of Runic Games. Runic was acquired by Perfect World in 2010, and is most famous for its excellent ARPG series Torchlight, which was seen as a true successor to the Diablo franchise--not coincidentally many of Blizzard North's veteran developers shifted to Runic to work on the game. The publisher says it shuttered the studio so it can focus on games-as-a-service.

"Perfect World Entertainment recently closed the Seattle office of Runic Games as part of the company's continued strategy to focus on online games as a service," the company said in a statement to Kotaku.

Now that the Xbox One X is rolling out onto the market with some early reviews, Remedy Entertainment has pushed out its new Xbox One X update for Quantum Break.

Quantum Break's new Xbox One X patch is a huge 50GB, but with the additional patch that enabled 4K support, on top of the 102GB initial install, we're looking at a 178GB installation. Remedy were smart with original Xbox One owners, offering Quantum Break players to stream the video portion of the game to their Xbox. If you wanted the high quality files, you'd need 75GB of HDD space.

But this new Xbox One X patch and the video file for Quantum Break using 178GB of the 1TB HDD space inside of the Xbox One X patch. As an Australian, I know the problems of having low-speed internet connections, so a 178GB installation will take many Xbox One X gamers weeks and weeks to download. 178GB is absolutely mammoth, even with the likes of Forza Motorsport 7 using 100GB of HDD space.

Ubisoft has been quick to squash rumors that the massive CPU usage in Assassin's Creed: Origins is not because of the anti-tamper solution they've used on the PC version.

In a statement, Ubisoft explains: "We're confirming that the anti-tamper solutions implemented in the Windows PC version of Assassin's Creed Origins have no perceptible effect on game performance In order to recreate a living, systemic and majestic open world of Ancient Egypt, where players can witness all of its stunning details, its beautiful landscapes & incredible cities, in a completely seamless way with no loading screens, Assassin's Creed Origins uses the full extent of the minimum and recommended PC system requirements".

The company has also just released a patch for Assassin's Creed: Origins, which provides "improved stability and performance". So if the CPU usage is fixed, it's all just a coincidence that the new patch arrived just now, right... Ubisoft?

One of my biggest concerns about the Xbox One X's enhancement patches is file size. While developers have free reign to use the console's beefy specs as they see fit, some games like Microsoft's first-party and exclusive lineup, typically become storage-gobbling behemoths with these patches installed.

According to a recent post on Reddit, Quantum Break's Xbox One X patch pushes the game's file size to 102GB (didn't Halo 5 get this big even without enhancements?). The patch itself includes various tweaks and upgrades, but even with the extra content, the game won't run at native 4K on the console.

It gets a bit worse though: the long-winded tie-in TV-show like videos--which are needed to give the full scope of the game and the choices you make--tack on more than 70GB of extra data. Thankfully these portions can be streamed online and there's really no reason to download them unless you want to play offline.

Activision's latest third quarter financials are filled to the brim with interesting tidbits of data. While it's important to note how much net revenue is earned in a quarter, it's also vital to discuss how much Activision spent on costs and expenses like game development and marketing.

According to the company's Q3'17 earnings report, Activision spent a sizable $750 million on product development in the last nine months, up 11.44% year-over-year. This costs represents roughly 15% of the publisher's total net revenue for the nine-month period. It also spent $717 million on game operations and distribution, highlighting retail costs and upkeep in live service games such as Overwatch, Hearthstone, Destiny and World of Warcraft. In the three-month quarter ending September 30, Activision spent $273 million on development, up 9.63% year-over-year and representing about 17% of total Q3 net revenues.

What's more interesting is how much money Activision spends on costs and expenses to power its billion-dollar empire. Understanding how much companies are spending gives key insight on current industry trends such as recurring revenues via lootboxes and microtransactions. While Activision raked in $1.618 billion in net revenues in Q3, it spent 84% or $1.361 billion of these earnings on expenses, with sales and marketing costing the most, followed by product development and game operations and distribution costs.

Microsoft might be pushing the 4K buzzword in its marketing push for Xbox One X, but it's not all about that four kay... 1080p and 1440p are still a thing, and the Xbox One X will definitely have 1440p support but it's "coming soon".

Xbox One X will have system-wide support for 1440p, so you should enjoy your UI at 2560x1440, but now we need game developers to provide options for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. The more I think about this, the more the consoles are becoming like PCs with multiple resolutions on offer. Xbox One X could eventually support variable framerate on FreeSync monitors, which would really underscore the Xbox One X over the PS4 Pro.

Speaking of the PS4 Pro, Sony has provided support for rendering at 2560x1440 and then upscaling it to 4K. The PS4 Pro supports 1080p and 4K output, meaning that if the PS4 Pro is connected to a 1440p display, it'll output at 1080p and then upscale to 4K.

Activision just posted its third quarter 2017 earnings, revealing lots of interesting tidbits (such as earning $1 billion from microtransactions and in-game purchases). In the reports the publisher noted that Destiny 2 is "well ahead" of the first game insofar as engagement.

Activision just posted its third quarter 2017 earnings, revealing lots of interesting tidbits (such as earning $1 billion from microtransactions and in-game purchases). In the reports the publisher noted that Destiny 2 is "well ahead" of the first game insofar as engagement.

Digital gaming has become more and more important in the console space, and key publishers like Activision are reaping the benefits of a tightly focused engagement-monetization approach used for its online service games. The company reported a record $1 billion from in-game purchases during the third quarter ending September 30, and Destiny 2 enjoyed landmark success on consoles. The company reiterates the NPD Group's data that says Destiny 2 is the best-selling console game year-to-date (as of Sept. 30, Call of Duty WWII is surely set to shatter that record), and that over 50% of sales for the game on consoles were from digital.

Typically, games-makers like Sony and Microsoft sell console hardware at a loss simply because these devices are gateways into the lucrative world of digital services such as microtransactions, subscriptions, DLC, etc. Sony has carefully situated the PlayStation 4 as the nexus of its digital network offerings, and the company affirms these solutions help mitigate the risks of a console cycle.

The games industry has changed. Thanks to free content updates, consumers are now spending more time in (and money into) online-based live service games like Overwatch, Destiny, and PUBG, and publishers--as well as platform holders like Sony and Microsoft--are all too eager to reap the billion dollar benefits of the market.

Sony's Games and Network Services segment, which includes PlayStation hardware and software as well as subscriptions, PS Plus, and a retinue of other subscriptions, is a huge revenue driver for the company (the segment earned 21% of Sony's total fiscal Q2'17 sales and 26% of total quarterly OI). Sony is also selling games directly to consumers on its PlayStation Network platform, and digital sales have grown steadily. As a result, Sony has affirmed the network segment is mitigating a number of key risks for the console cycle.

Today Microsoft introduced a brand new concept called Xbox Quests, a new platform that will keep players "sticky" in the Xbox LIVE platform by tempting them with prizes like 4K TVs, consoles, and more.

Xbox Quests is essentially an on-console extension of Microsoft's Bing Rewards program, which grants people points for using the Bing search engine that can then be used to buy gift cards and other goods. This is a very smart move by Microsoft, and is a very low effort high-reward scenario that will see millions of Xbox LIVE and Xbox users completing "objectives" for the chance to win items like a 55-inch 4K Samsung TV. Microsoft is basically offering you virtual lottery tickets in exchange for your engagement and data boosts.

The "quests" for the program's debut range from simply logging into your Mixer app at least five times in the month--meaning you have to not only make an account if you don't already have one but actually log in, boosting Microsoft's internal DAU and MAU data stats. Oh and...you can't complete one of the "objectives" without having Xbox LIVE Gold.