Gaming - Page 904

Secretlab have some of the most deliciously comfortable gaming chairs on the market, with the Singapore-gaming chair company teasing their next-gen OMEGA and THRONE gaming chairs that'll be on the market in 2018.

The newly updated OMEGA and THRONE chairs make them both even more comfortable, with Secretlab tapping memory foam pillows that imrpove the weight distribution on the seat. The company has also widened the armrests, and made them more ergonomic as well.

Secretlab's flagship OMEGA 2018 gaming chair will debut for around $350, while the THRONE 2018 gaming chair will cost around $300. The big difference between the OMEGA and THRONE is that the OMEGA will be padded with the same foam used in cars, with durable PRIME PU leather. The new THRONE uses a more 'refined' look, with Secretlab redesigning the chair with a futuristic look.

Sony could one day use blockchain, which secures data in cryptographic "blocks", as a means to better protect PlayStation Network users.

Sony's online infrastructure is notoriously wonky and has been the center of a number of hacks, some of which exposed user data including PlayStation Network users and even celebrities aligned with Sony Pictures. The Japanese titan has since added two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect PSN user data, but it might opt for something more secure in the future: blockchain.

Records show that Sony has applied for a patent that would use the versatility of blockchain as another layer of cybercrime prevention by using Multi-factor Authentication (MFA).

Microsoft is keen on providing the Netflix service of gaming with its new Xbox Game Pass subscription service...and they're actually hitting the mark quite nicely.

Remember Xbox Game Pass? Apparently the pay-per-month subscription service, which has a rotating selection of full downloadable games, has been doing quite well--so well that Satya Nadella is discussing plans to roll the service out across a variety of platforms. Right now Game Pass is limited to Xbox One consoles, but Xbox exec Phil Spencer said he "really wants to bring Game Pass to PC, but we just need to get it in the right place." Considering Microsoft makes a lot of revenue monetizing Xbox-as-a-service across PC, consoles and even mobiles, it'd behoove the company to find a way to bring this so-called "Netflix for games" to all gaming platforms.

Here's what Microsoft's CEO said in the most recent earnings call: "In particular, we now have a subscription offer with Game Pass that's off to a good very good start and our goal is to be able to have essentially a Netflix for games, so that we can have the game subscriptions that people can use across all of the devices that they play in."

Despite having some of the best rendering in the industry, Naughty Dog's new The Last of Us Part II trailer has divided a number of gamers and games media due to its unfettered savagery. (Warning: this footage is pretty visceral)

The Last of Us Part II's absence at E3 2017 didn't go unnoticed, but it's somewhat typical for Naughty Dog, the perfectionist game developer who puts every ounce of their souls into their creations. Fast forwarding a few months later to present times and the studio delivered a surprise trailer at the end of Sony's Paris Games Week showcase that's full of mayhem, gore, and harrowing cruelty.

The latest trailer for The Last of Us Part II shows just how far those extra few months of time and polish went. The rendered footage is absolutely dazzling in its grisly subject matter, showing incredibly detailed and nuanced facial expressions, lighting effects, and a litany of other technical tricks that paint a stunning glimpse at the developer's latest all-in project. But it also opens a window into that broken, battered world where people are ripped apart, betrayed, and brutally beaten by their own kind--even as the human race faces extinction.

After years of development and assuredly months upon months of crunch, the multi-development team at EA Motive, Criterion, and DICE have finished Battlefront II.

Niklas Fegraeus, design director of Battlefront II, recently confirmed that the upcoming shooter has been finalized on a gold master--the finished version of the game that will ship in stores--with only weeks to spare before the November 17 launch. Battlefront II's "pay-to-win" style monetization system drew the ire of fans across the globe, however after playing it, many agreed that it's actually a great game. Since the controversy broke out EA and DICE have promised to make a few key changes to the game itself, but don't expect things to shift dramatically; EA makes over a billion dollars a year from microtransactions and digital DLC, and Battlefront II is a perfect fit for this model. Since Battlefront II is a service game it'll continually evolve with free content updates--the gold master is just a set in stone core foundation.

After trying the beta test, I wrote up a quick piece explaining why Battlefront II is one of the most addictive shooters in recent memory. This will have a tremendous effect on its engagement strategy, and how much money gamers are willing to spend for in-game items, loot, and characters. I predict that Battlefront II will be either the biggest shooter of the year, or the second biggest following Call of Duty: WWII...however Destiny 2 has been smashing records left and right too.

Destiny 2's first official expansion, Curse of Osiris, will drop in December, Sony today announced at Paris Games Week.

Guardians in the Destiny 2 universe have been bugging Bungie for new content for a bit now--it turns out just a month after launch gamers are hitting the proverbial endgame wall. Now everyone's clamoring for something fresh. Don't fret: Bungie has heard your call, and is responding by launching a new expansion to the game that'll bring new narrative structure and adventures on Mercury.

"Destiny 2 Expansion I: Curse of Osiris continues your Guardian's journey with all-new story missions and adventures set in a new destination, Mercury. Journey through time and space to learn the secrets of Osiris, avert a dark future, and rebuild the ties between the legendary Warlock and his greatest student - Ikora Rey," reads the official description.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds could get pushed out of the world's most lucrative budding gaming market: China.

Chinese watchdogs at the Game Industry Network have cited that PUBG, the hottest game in the industry right now, may be too violent because of its survival at-all-costs mechanics that see gamers taking on dozens of other players in an open-world deathmatch genre. It's also likely PUBG won't get official approval from China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, and could get banned in the region. Since the game has yet to get official approval from the government, players have to access the game via VPNs, which are often inconsistent and eventually blocked.

If PUBG is indeed barred from play in China, it would have a significant effect on the game. Chinese players currently account for the lion's share of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds players on Steam, making up 37% of PUBG's owner and a mighty 44% of its playerbase, dwarfing the numbers in other regions including the United States.

GOG have announced they're getting into the holiday spirit with their own Halloween sale with more than 200 games discounted from 15% up to 90%, be quick though, the GOG Halloween sale is set to end November 2.

In case heavily discounted games weren't enough incentive to break your budget, GOG are giving away Tales from the Borderlands for free if you spend more than $15. Continuing with the Halloween theme, GOG have included a number of Horror themed games to their GOG Connect Program, this allows GOG users to redeem DRM-free editions of games that are sitting in your Steam library including SOMA, Layers of Fear and much more.

Head over to GOG's website and to start getting into the holiday spirit.

Battlegrounds is an unstoppable PC gaming phenomenon that has sold over 15 million copies, has continued to break Steam's concurrent gamer records, and is coming to the Xbox One really, really soon. But what about cross-play between PC and consoles?

PlayerUnknown himself, Brendan Greene, was at PAX Australia 2017 over the weekend where he talked about Xbox One and PC gamers possibly being able to play PUBG together. Greene said that Battlegrounds is coming to the Xbox One's Game Preview program later this year, adding: "Because the experience is going to be the same on both platforms, we really want these players to play together. How we do that fairly is another question".

Greene continued: "It's something we're looking into, but right now we don't have anything to say about it. But we would like to see it happen. But how we do that requires a bit of work".

Assassin's Creed Origin players have been saying how good the CPU scaling is in the game, and while there was a glimmer of hope that Ubisoft didn't screw everyone with AC:U, it appears they in fact did.

There are a bunch of posts on Reddit, Steam, and other gaming communities that point to anti-tamper tech Denuvo, is using 30-40% of gamers' CPUs in Assassin's Creed Origins. Ubisoft has reportedly added VMProtect over Denuvo, which should in theory protect Assassin's Creed Origins from pirates... but at the cost of gamers' CPU usage? On top of that, most Denuvo-protected games are cracked within days, and sometimes in less than 24 hours.

We will know the truth once the game is cracked and people run it with and without the Denuvo protection, to see if the CPU usage does indeed drop. If it does, Ubisoft are going to be in a world of hurt.

Battlegrounds is set to receive one of its biggest changes since it was launched into Steam Early Access in March, where it has since sold 17 million copies and broken Steam concurrent gamer records.

The new update will provide vaulting and climbing to the game, which is needed in a big way. Bluehole announced that there will be test servers going live in the next few days with the new climbing and vaulting features, but there are some huge hours that need to be pumped into testing before the servers can go live.

Bluehole explained: "Crossing and scaling obstacles may intermittently create many new tactical options available to the players. The standard jump feature can be used in standard situations, but there are many areas where it does not suffice. After all, PUBG features a play area of considerable proportions. In addition, objects located on the map differ greatly in shape and size. Such complexity can cause many problems for the players who need to rely on fast and effective means of jumping over (or on top of) boxes, containers, fences etc. For that reason we have decided to implement dynamic vaulting and climbing mechanics".

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds just won't quit breaking records...and the game's playerbase is dominated by Chinese gamers.

According to the latest metrics from SteamSpy, PUBG has now has over 17.1 million owners--in fact, the game broke the 17 million mark 5 days ago. Where things get really interesting is the game's geographical playerbase makeup, which shows most of PUBG's owners and active players are in China. For reference, PUBG has now sold more copies than the entire Devil May Cry franchise.

Figures show that China represents roughly 37% of PUBG's owners and a huge 44% of its playerbase, dwarfing the numbers in the U.S. that hold 14.5% owners and about 11% of game players. As key service games command billions in earnings from China, Bluehole stands to reap tremendous revenues if they can properly monetize this playerbase.

Microsoft engages and potentially monetizes over a massive 53 million user playerbase thanks to successful games and services strategies.

Microsoft just announced its quarterly earnings for the new 2018 fiscal year and the results are strong, especially in the Xbox gaming segment. According to the results Xbox games and services earned $1.8 billion in revenues, up 20% year-over-year and accounting for roughly 20% of total revenues from the More Personal Computing segment. Now that Microsoft has anchored itself into a serviced-based business model that monetizes its audience with microtransactions, ads, and services like Mixer, one of the most vital and valuable metrics is how many gamers are using Xbox LIVE on Xbox consoles, PC and mobiles. In terms of MAUs those numbers are good.

"Our engaged user base grew 13 percent to 53 million monthly active users across Xbox One, Windows 10 and mobile platforms," Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said in the earnings call. "Additionally, new services like GamePass and Mixer, which create more opportunities for engagement and monetization, showed encouraging early results."

Analyst firm SuperData has revealed some interesting figures: Destiny 2 is a monumental success in terms of digital sales--figures that have utterly demolished its predecessor's digital sales in 2014.

Just yesterday we reported that, according to the NPD Group, Destiny 2 is the best-selling game of 2017 in the U.S. so far, driving software spending for the month of September. Now analyst firm SuperData is echoing Destiny 2's landmark success on consoles with its own findings.

"Destiny 2 has the largest digital launch ever on console and has become the fastest-selling digital console game in a launch month," SuperData reports on its monthly numbers roll.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is coming to the Xbox family of consoles sometime soon, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirms the shooter will run on Azure.

Azure, Microsoft's cloud service, has a number of potential benefits for video games. The Xbox One exclusive Titanfall used Azure to host backend servers, and PUBG will do the same, while dramatically reducing the bandwidth load from game developer Bluehole who's currently managing servers for millions of PC players everyday. According to Microsoft's Satya Nadella, PUBG will use Azure on the Xbox One. I'm curious how this will affect PC and Xbox One cross-play with Steam and Azure servers.

"We also see opportunity to empower developers who work on console, PC and mobile games to use our cloud infrastructure and services to enhance their game-play and community. Gaming pushes the boundaries of hardware and software innovation with some of the most CPU and GPU-intensive applications and content, giving us a huge opportunity in the cloud," Nadella said in Microsoft's Q1'18 earnings call. "As one example, Pub-G Corp with the hit game Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, is not only partnering to make Xbox the exclusive console at launch but is also running on Azure."

Microsoft just announced its results for its first quarter of Fiscal Year 2018, showing strong growth in key segments--including gaming.

Microsoft's Xbox gaming division has changed monumentally over the years; in the past, the platform-holder created a retinue of first-party singleplayer content and fostered a massive platform that hosted tons of games. Now in the wake of monetized online engagement, Xbox has transformed from a console into a service that bridges Windows 10 PCs and Xbox One machines while following the games-as-a-service model for its games. Microsoft is a big adopter of GaaS, and all of its first-party games typically have microtransactions and online hooks to enable consistent revenue streams to flow in.

In Q1 FY18, Microsoft's More Personal and Computing segment, which includes Xbox gaming, pulled in $9.378 billion in revenue during the quarter. Gaming made up about 20% of its parent segment's earnings, and about 7.7% of Microsoft's total revenues of $24.5 billion in the three-month period. Xbox software and services revenues are up 21% year-over-year.

Amazon has made the decision to put its 4v4 PVP brawler Breakaway into "indefinite hiatus," sources have told Kotaku.

Amazon Game Studios first announced Breakaway in 2016, and has since ran the game through numerous beta tests. The game, which features team-on-team action, obviously had lofty esports aspirations and the retail titan assuredly hoped Breakaway would align perfectly with its game streaming platform Twitch. "Breakaway is a 4v4 mythological sport brawler built for fast action, teamwork, and live-streaming," reads the game's description.

Now key sources close to the matter have told Kotaku that Breakaway has been put to sleep, joining the likes of the Mass Effect and Deus Ex franchises. The sources didn't reveal exactly why Brekaway was put on hiatus, but the current state of the video games industry paints a clear picture: it's very likely that Amazon saw Breakaway wasn't heating up and attracting gamers, and 2K Games' ill-fated Battleborn is a warning sign to all games-makers everywhere.

Steam offer various methods to help friends and family purchase games, with the ability to gift games and purchase physical gift cards from retailers. Steam have introduced another method to help top up your friends and family's Steam Wallets, with the introduction of Steam Digital Gift Cards.

As you could imagine, it's pretty straight forward and works much in the way of physical Steam Gift Cards... except you don't have to leave your house! Users sign into their Steam account, select the amount you wish to gift and the recipient and then the funds will then be transferred straight to the recipients Steam Wallet. These funds can then be spent as they desire- hardware, software, games or in-game items.

If you're feeling generous, head over to Steam's website for more details.

UPDATE: We're still not sure what kinds of safeguards Ubisoft has put in place to limit certain transactions, ie limiting how many ability points players can buy in a given day or time period. We'll be sure to update this post if we get more information.

Assassin's Creed: Origins embraces microtransactions in a familiar way, and Helix credits are back. the game's monetization strategies align with our original predictions in a number of ways.

In the months leading up to Assassin's creed: Origins' launch, I predicted that the game's RPG mechanics and randomized gear hooks would be heavily monetized. Lo and behold, Ubisoft is offering a number of optional time-saving microtransactions that can dramatically speed up your efficacy. In a very real sense, you can theoretically pay enough money to become extremely powerful the first day you buy the game. I say theoretically because the Ubisoft Store where you buy the premium Helix currency isn't online yet, so I can't report prices.

B.J. Blazkowicz is back with Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, and publisher Bethesda have revealed the PC system requirements ahead of its October 27 release date. The system requirements are quite a step up from 2014's Wolfenstein The New Order, with mid-range systems likely to require some tweaking.

Minimum:

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770/AMD FX-8350 or better