Gaming - Page 906

For years, Forbes has been tracking the richest people in the US and their most recent list has included someone we all know and love: our lord and savior, GabeN. Gabe Newell, the boss of Valve, is one of the 100 richest people in the United States with $5.5 billion.

Newell is in a 10-way tie for the 97th richest in the US, with the Valve boss now the 43rd richest tech billionaire in the US, and the 427th richest person in the world. If you thought it was good now, it will be much bigger in the future as Valve's continued success through receiving a cut of every single game sold on Steam, Valve's money flow will only continue to grow. Newell is now richer than even George Lucas (118th), and Steven Spielberg (206th).

Now this is where it gets interesting: Valve is a private company, so Forbes' numbers are just estimates. Newell's personal wealth, along with Valve, could be worth magnitudes more. Forbes' educated guess is that Valve is worth $10 billion, with Newell owning just over half of the company. If you ever want to know why Valve haven't made Half-Life 3 yet, it's because they don't have to... they make more money from providing the largest digital game distribution service in the world.

Did you know: Sharp once made a television set with a Nintendo Entertainment System built right in? Let's take a closer look.

Back in the 1980s, Sharp teamed up with Nintendo to make a nifty invention that will probably be the face of video games in the not-too-distant future: a TV-video game console combo. Behold the My Computer TV C1, an invention that saw a Sharp TV with a built-in NES console to make the ultimate all-in-one entertainment package. The NES TV (sounds a lot better than its actual name!) came out in 1983 in Japan, the same year the Famicom debuted, and came in 19-inch and 14-inch models selling for $1,278 and $819 respectively. In 1989, the nifty package traveled overseas and released in the U.S. as the Sharp Nintendo TV (aka the GameTelevision)

YouTuber Kelsey Lewin highlights this unique Sharp-NES TV's history and talks about how this little slice of history impacted the gaming world. For instance, since the Sharp NES TV had native RGB output, it was the best possible display for NES games at the time, and many gaming publications used it to take screenshots. And the NES built into the TV is almost identical to a retail NES model sold separately.

HORI's new kid-friendly PS4 controller has a nice idea behind it, but the $30 controller just looks like trouble waiting to happen.

Wireless controllers are great, as I'm sure any parent will agree. Sony's new kid-friendly Mini Wired Gamepad, however, lacks this nice little feature that has undoubtedly protected many an expensive video games console from ruination. Sony's cheap controller, however, could put our collective PS4s in danger once again when, say, a child yanks too hard on his or her mini gamepad and sends the console crashing to the ground. More often than not the USB cord will just yank out and nothing happens...but sometimes you aren't so lucky (I've seen it happen).

Furthermore, the controller looks super uncomfortable, even for children. I'm sure Sony tested the device with R&D and marketing, but the point still stands--the device looks cheap, unwieldy but durable. Let's hope it actually fits tiny hands well.

Nintendo's new Switch hybrid console has sold 2 million units in the United States alone, according to the latest figures from analyst firm NPD Group.

The Nintendo Switch continues its sweeping success across the games industry through the month of September, where it reigned over Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One in sales for the third month running--a milestone that the company proudly touts. The figures come from the NPD Group's latest monthly sales charts, which see the Switch selling over 2 million units in the U.S. alone, making up almost half of the Switch's currently reported 4.7 million install base.

The NPD Group also notes that the Switch has topped sales charts for five out of the seven months since its launch in March of 2017. "When combined with the Nintendo 3DS family of systems and the plug-and-play Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Super NES Classic Edition system, Nintendo systems claimed two-thirds of the month's total video game hardware sales," reads an official Nintendo press release that cites NPD's data.

The video games industry's Gaming Video Content (GVC) segment is tremendously lucrative, and according to analyst firm SuperData, it will pull in over $4 billion in 2017.

Gaming Video Content is one of the biggest pillars of the current Games-as-a-Service (GaaS) business model that gaming's biggest publishers--Activision, EA, Take-Two Interactive, and Ubisoft--are currently embracing. Service-based games such as Overwatch are built to monetize engagement, which is continually generated via content creators streaming gameplay on Twitch and YouTube, massive eSports tournaments with big payouts, and a steady stream of new content for players to enjoy. Publishers monetize said engagement in a number of ways, including lootboxes and other microtransactions, and, most importantly, through GVC.

As SuperData notes, the main methods of generating revenue through GVC are advertisements, strategic partnerships, subscriptions, donations, and sponsorships--all of which can be monetized via engagement strategies. As more people watch their favorite content creators, the more people play the games, and potentially buy into the monetization path--or simply generate billions in advertisement revenue simply by watching.

Star Wars: Battlefront II is slated to release next month, and will include an interesting looking singleplayer campaign that not only folds into the original trilogy, but tells a unique story from the Empire's point of view. One of my biggest concerns about the campaign is its length--Battlefield 1's War Stories were short-ish--but EA Motive's David Robillard affirms the experience well be somewhat beefy.

Back in April, EA and DICE teased that Battlefront II's campaign, which is told from Empire commander Iden Versio's point of view, would be "emotionally gripping" and deliver a tale of "revenge, betrayal and redemption." The story, which is being penned by Spec Ops: The Line writer Walt Williams alongside ex-IGN editor Mitch Dyer, will bridge the end of the original trilogy to the expanded universe, and touch upon the New Order's rise--all while featuring new and classic characters like Luke Skywalker.

But how long will Star Wars: Battlefront II's campaign actually be?

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is a runaway success with 2 million concurrent gamers on Steam, and over 15 million copies that have made South Korean developer Bluehole, nearly $500 million. Insanity.

Battle Royale is now blending with the virtual world with Virtual Battlegrounds, something that was born from a post on Reddit, and then Oneiric Entertainment went to work with it. It looks very basic right now, almost like it was made as a joke - which it kinda was, with a limited 16-player world for now with plans to expand the player count.

Virtual Battlegrounds has free-for-all and squad-based options, with a release in 2018 for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets. If it is to become something better than it is now, it's going to need some serious work, and much more time in the development oven.

Microsoft's Xbox One is shunned like the plague in Japan, which is dominated by mobile games and, in the console space, Sony's PlayStation 4 and Nintendo's new Switch handheld. As a result, Microsoft seems to have trouble attracting key Japanese devs--especially niche games-makers like Nippon Ichi Software. According to NIS America, the North American branch of Nippon Ichi Software, Microsoft isn't really keen on tapping the Japanese games market.

According to NIS America president and CEO Takuro Yamashita, Microsoft isn't keen on niche Japanese games. "Honestly speaking, Microsoft's approach to Japanese games hasn't been very supportive," Yamashita-san told MCV. "Microsoft, you know, for Japanese games, there's still a very niche element to them, no matter what it might be. Microsoft also has a minimum order quantity for their games, and their whole structure isn't really geared toward niche games or smaller games like Japanese titles, so they're not really supportive of Japanese games or developers."

This seems strange as a number of high-profile games from Japanese devs and publishers do release on the Xbox One and the Windows 10 platform, including Final Fantasy XV, but the reality is the system doesn't sell well in the region. Any Japanese games that come to Xbox One are usually big-budget titles that are being localized by massive publisher-led development teams. Sony's PlayStation 4, conversely, is a hotbed of niche and popular Japanese games, from JRPGs and everything in between.

With over 15 million copies sold, you're bound to find players who are willing to cheat for a little chicken dinner. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is not exception, anti-cheat system BattlEye has reported that over 322,000 cheaters have been caught in PUBG, that's 6-13K banned a day, with the vast majority reportedly from China.

Cracking down on cheaters appears to be the flavor of the month, with Blizzard recently banning WoW accounts and Fortnite developer Epic Games suing cheaters for $150,000. This is amazing news for the gaming community as the chances are we have all experienced cheaters in our games, regardless if we have been aware of it or not.

The runaway success of Battlegrounds has even politicians in South Korea talking, with Congressman Dong Sub Lee bringing a golden pan to a government audit hearing for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Congressman Lee said: "Battleground was made by a developer from our country. The game has sold 12 million copies and have gone over 1.99 million concurrent players in 6 months. This is unprecedented in Korean gaming history". In August, golden frying pans were given out as trophies for the Gamescom PUBG Invitational tournament.

He continued, requesting that the ministry provide support to game developers, so that South Korea can see more games like Battlegrounds, and continued success.

The Xbox One X version of ARK: Survival Evolved will have two visual modes, as well as support for HDR mode. The two rendering modes will be "Detailed Graphics" and "1080p" mode.

Studio Wildcard's upcoming patch for the Xbox version of ARK will be released on October 25, and will let the game harness the additional power inside of the Xbox One X, improving loading times and better streaming. ARK's new Detailed Graphics mode will render the game at 1440p, with the Truesky high quality PC setting at 30FPS.

ARK's second mode for the Xbox One X will render the game at 1080p, but with a much smoother 60FPS. Studio Wildcard writes on their website: "The Xbox One X has increased RAM, 60-70% more RAM compared to the Xbox One, which will help to eliminate out of memory issues. It also means faster loading times and better streaming due to a faster hard-drive and the ability to cache data into RAM (coming November 7th) that will allow faster and better access to repeat files. The Xbox One X will eliminate the host tether in local splitscreen mode and will increase the tether range in non-dedicated mode. Unfortunately we were unable to remove the tether completely due to CPU limitations, but we hope that players will benefit from the increased range".

Nintendo of America is making it harder for non-popular or established video influencers or video games websites to attain advanced review copies of first-party games, anonymous sources tell US Gamer.

According to inside sources who agreed to speak on the matter on the condition of anonymity, Nintendo's North American branch is tightening access to early review copies of its games in an effort to stop early leaks and further control its intellectual property. These sources say that the company has revised its policy following the major leak of Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga and Bowser's Minions for the 3DS. As a result, a number of North American YouTubers/streamers and gaming outlets won't get pre-release access to Super Mario Odyssey or Fire Emblem Warriors. European press, however, has access to both games, sources say.

"After the leak of Mario & Luigi, done by an influencer, [Nintendo of America] flipped out and changed their review policy. Plenty of outlets and influencers are without [Fire Emblem Warriors] and [Super Mario Odyssey]... Apparently, it will be [sent out] in tiers, but [I'm] not sure how they are set up," a source told US Gamer.

On the eve of Visceral Games' death at the hands of EA--sadly studios closures happen all the time in this industry--a bunch of current and ex developers shared their thoughts about working at the studio and gave brief looks through these unique windows of time. Zach Wilson, who worked on Dead Space 2, was one such developer, and his particular window peeled back the layers of the games industry to give us a look at its inner workings.

Video games are very expensive, and there's so, so much that goes into making them that the average gamer doesn't realize. As ex-Bungie dev Jaime Griesemer rightly said, the fact that any game ever ships is a miracle. There's often a big disconnect between developers, who make the games, and publishers, who pay for the games: publishers typically set the budgets with marketing, development, distribution, etc, as well as the deals with platform holders like Microsoft and Sony. These budgets are often predatory in the sense that every last cent is pinched, and the sales expectations are firmly set in stone. Sometimes these targets are conservative, sometimes they're outlandish--but regardless of all the planning and exhaustive data sifting, there's no guarantee that a game will sell X units and make Y dollars.

As so many gamers wonder why EA closed down Visceral Games, ex-Visceral dev Zach Wilson gave an example how numbers are pretty much the backbone to a studio's success, and determine whether or not they stick around. Wilson notes that Dead Space 2's budget was about $60 million, and that EA was "merciless" with its budgeting. For reference, EA expects to make upwards of $5 billion in net revenue this fiscal year, and is one of the "big three" in gaming. To say EA wants to invest in guaranteed projects is an understatement.

Capcom might miss its internal net sales target for the fiscal year ending March 2018, analysts predict.

Japanese video games publisher Capcom has a section on its Investor Relations page devoted to consensus from a sampling of major industry analysts. These analysts typically weigh in and give their predictions on whether or not Capcom will meet, exceed, or miss internal financial targets for the fiscal year. Capcom just updated this section, showing some interesting results. Remember these predictions fluctuate based on the performance and reception of key games, as well as other things such as market trends, exchange rates, etc.

Since predictions are not an exact science, analysts separate their consensuses into three likelihood categories: average, low, and high. Analysts agree that on the average Capcom may miss its net sales target of 93 billion yen earned from total game sales and content by about 4%, or 3.701 billion yen. This may reflect the current reception of Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite, which reportedly had a meager budget. It's worth noting, however, the "high" prediction for net sales sits at 98.272 billion yen, or about 5.6% above Capcom's estimates.

In an advertisement for the new Resident Evil 7 Gold Edition, Capcom reveals the haunting game has sold-in (shipped) more than 4 million copies worldwide...but don't get this confused with actual digital and retail sales.

This new milestone might sound impressive, but a closer glance gives true meaning. Remember that this is shipments to retailers, also called sell-in, not actual games sales made to consumers (which is called sell-through). At the time of writing Capcom still has Resident Evil 7 pinned at 3.7 million units sold globally, matching the figures it gave out during its fiscal Q1'18 earnings report.

Capcom's recent financials reveal that Resident Evil 7, which was released in January, missed the lofty sales target set by the publisher: the company expected the game to hit 4 million units sold by the end of the fiscal year in March. Capcom later adjusted its financials and removed exact sales projections on a per-game basis.

True RTS fans will remember the Command & Conquer series with fond memories... until EA purchased the series and tarnished its legacy. Developer Petroglyph Games have announced that in partnership with Team 17, a new RTS called Forged Battalion. Petroglyph Games have built an impressive RTS resume including Grey-Goo and Star Wars: Empire at War, the company was also founded by core members of the original Command & Conquer. Petroglyph Games have released a teaser trailer showcasing what we can expect from Forged Battalion and I think I can speak for every Command & Conquer fan when I say it looks absolutely brilliant.

Petroglyph Games also release some information along with their trailer, most interesting is that Forged Battalion allows players to forge their own faction from the ground up, no more NOD or GDI. Forged Battalion is set to include a 'Persistent Tech Tree' that advances with every battle won, allowing your faction to upgrade its technology with different science paths. As expected, Forged Battalion will also include a 'dynamic story campaign' and online multiplayer.

Forged Battalion will be released into Steam Early Access in early 2018, for more information you can read Team 17's official press release here.

Back in August I posted that Warhammer: Vermintide 2 was announced, with a full reveal in October... Well, Fatshark delivered on their promise and today released a trailer that includes two minutes of pre-alpha gameplay footage, that looks BRUTAL. Check it out below.

As expected, the Skaven hordes are back and have introduced some new friends with them, Choas. The two forces have "formed a pact to plunge the world into death and decay". Fatshark included some more information in the trailer with 15 careers/5 heroes, visceral melee combat, improved loot system, talent trees, new enemies and weapons and more.

"We have listened to the community, analyzed hours and hours of online playthroughs, and combined this with our passion for co-op games to bring you the very best experience possible," says Fatshark CEO Martin Wahlund.

EA has officially closed Visceral Games, the studio responsible for Dead Space and Battlefield Hardline, and the developer's ambitious new Star Wars project (codenamed "Ragtag") has been handed off to another internal EA studio.

Visceral Games is no more, and one of the big reasons EA likely canned the studio was because of their upcoming Star Wars game led by Amy Hennig. EA is embracing the games-as-a-service business model that essentially sees games lasting much longer and making more long-term money via microtransactions and lootboxes. I've reported on this in the past, and predicted that pretty much every new EA game--or AAA game from a big publisher--will have microtransactions and embrace this model. Sadly, Visceral's new Star Wars project just didn't fit this model, and EA has decided to dismantle the studio entirely and hand the project off to EA Vancouver, who will make a game from the assets and bones of Project Ragtag while incorporating that critical GaaS hook. This marks the second time EA has shut down a studio recently, the first being BioWare Montreal, who was shut down after the humiliating reception around Mass Effect: Andromeda.

In a recent blog post, EA exec Patrick Soderlund announced Visceral Games' closure and explained what the future holds for Project Ragtag.

While the gaming world is dominated by the likes of Battlegrounds, Fortnite, Star Wars: Battlefront II, and others... don't forget massive fan favorites like Team Fortress 2, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Valve is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Team Fortress 2 with one of the games largest updates ever; Jungle Inferno. The new update relocates your heroes to tropical climates, with a story ripped from the script of Jurassic Park. Mann Co. President, Saxton Hale, has opened up Yeti Park. But there's a twist! The yetis escape and start causing all sorts of problems, as you can see in the video above.

Another surprise is that Valve released a new map, which is the first in-house map created since 2015, as well as some yeti-related taunts. The company has also unleashed five new fan-designed maps, with more content planned in the new Jungle Inferno content pack that will be released over the next couple of weeks.

Seriously... if you haven't picked up a Nintendo Switch and played Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you really ought to. It's one of the best games I've ever played, safely tucked into my top 10... but PUBG is definitely my #1. YouTuber BSoD Gaming has a great comparison between the Switch version, and the PC version with all of the bells and whistles.

To get the best experience out of the comparison, watch the video in 4K. First off, the visual style of Zelda: BotW is instantly apparent, but it is highlighted in the PC version with all of the mods. We have a new graphics pack, which adds much more contrast and saturation to the world, resulting in a much more luscious world.

The one big thing that I will point out, that I haven't seen anyone talk about yet. Most of you know I'm a huge graphics/PCMR kinda guy, but the actual experience of playing Zelda: BotW on the Nintendo Switch in portable mode. It's an amazing experience in portable mode, almost as if Nintendo made the Switch just for Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It runs at 720p 30FPS, and as someone who games at 3440x1440 @ 100FPS+ it's a huge drop, but BotW is worth it.