Gaming - Page 912

Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan shares a thoughtful peek into the current development and upkeep of Blizzard's Overwatch, illustrating just how determined and dedicated the team is.

Although Overwatch shipped in 2016, it's still not finished: like most service-based games, Overwatch will continually evolve over time. That means the development team's job is never, ever finished, and according to Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan, everyone on the team is extremely ardent in their cause. Mr. Kaplan recently shared a rare thought-provoking look into the pure love and dedication that developers put into their games, especially the talented folks at Blizzard who are known for their near-superhuman feats.

Mr. Kaplan's post is long, and it's pretty deep, layered with truths and wisdom and sincerity. It's something I don't think a lot of us expected: a game director taking the time to be frank with us, talk to players and the community directly while also discussing just how vulnerable he and the rest of the team feels sometimes. This is something important that I think every Overwatch player--scratch that, every gamer--should read because it's powerful and shows how developers are human, how they're not just vending machines that are there to cater to you. They believe in the games, they put their heart and souls into them, and they love the experiences they create. More than that, though, they love the community and the people who play them.

Back in April we reported that Blizzard is working on mobile games (because of course they are), and now it appears one of these projects will be a Massively Multiplayer Online RTS experience.

Mobile gaming is currently most lucrative segment of the games industry. Analyst firm NewZoo predicts mobile will pull in 42% or $46.1 billion of 2017's gaming revenues, with the bulk of that number earned from free-to-play titles. Suffice it to say everyone wants to get their slice of the billion-dollar industry, even Blizzard, who already has a number of billion dollar franchises in its lineup.

According to new job listing that's been scrubbed from Blizzard's site, the company is working on a new MMO RTS mobile game. "Blizzard Entertainment is seeking an experienced Unity mobile client engineer to work on an unannounced MMO RTS project," the now-deleted listing said. Blizzard's Warcraft series fits the bill perfectly.

Batman developer Rocksteady Studios has been quietly working on something big enough to make gamers 'lose their minds'.

It's been a long, long time since we've heard about any new games from Rocksteady. The devs, who are best known for their popular Batman Arkham games, released their last big project in 2015 with Arkham Knight. Next year the team put out a PlayStation VR game that put gamers into the body of the caped crusader. But what have they been working on in the last two years? Apparently it's something huge.

"Be patient, fans. I know we're not talking right now... but when we do, people are going to lose their minds. Can't wait," Rocksteady's community manager Gaz Deaves said on Twitter. So what is it? According to Kotaku, WB Montreal is making a new Batman game, possibly focused on Damien Wayne. However given the shake-ups that happened at the studio, it's possible Rocksteady has taken on the project.

Anthem is the most ambitious game BioWare has ever made, and it's only prudent that the online shooter will have a beta test to provide feedback and gain invaluable data.

Any major online-based game needs a beta test. Online games like World of Warcraft or Destiny have infinitely complex systems that must all properly align at all times to ensure hundreds of behind-the-scenes infrastructures work at all times, and devs are constantly gathering and analyzing data to ensure their online gaming experiences are in tip-top shape. BioWare's new game Anthem, which sounds and looks like the developer's unique answer to Destiny, is no different--it needs a beta test (many of them in fact). While it shouldn't be a surprise to most gamers, Anthem game director Jonathan Warner confirmed the shooter will have a beta. Just don't expect it any time soon.

As far as official details, we have a nice idea of what Anthem is. We know that BioWare has been working on it for years and years now, and that it represents a massive turning point for the company as a brand new IP. We know that Anthem is a direct result of Electronic Arts' new focus on action-based games.

Nintendo plans to shut down the Wii Shop Channel in 2019 and effectively cut off all access to marketplace games, Gematsu reports.

Shortly after announcing MiiVerse's closure, Nintendo is killing off another facet of its legacy systems: the Wii's digital games shop. The Wii Shop Channel will be closed on January 31, 2019, according to reports, and users will no longer be able to add currency to their accounts to buy games after March 31, 2018 (which, coincidentally, is the end of Nintendo's fiscal year). Games can only be purchased on the shop via points, so if you've had your eye on classic VirtualConsole games to play on the Wii U or Wii, now's the time to load up your digital wallet.

Users will still be able to re-download games they own after the shop closes, Nintendo says, but eventually this too will be shut off, effectively turning your games library into copies of P.T. -- if you delete it, or something happens to your HDD, your games are gone forever.

I will admit that I'm a closet wrestling fan, I have signed Hulk Hogan merchandise and more WWE DVD's than any 31-year-old man should own. I also purchase the yearly installments of the WWE 2K series on PC, mainly for the updated rosters and regret nothing.

As all WWE 2K PC gamers are aware, the PC port has always been released much later than the console versions, usually six months post release. Sure, we get most the DLC included but the roster is always outdated and never made sense why 2K couldn't simultaneously release on all platforms.

Finally, WWE 2K18 on PC will finally launch same day as consoles, October 17. Steam is the chosen platform as expected, joining Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. 2K are offering some enticing pre-order DLC that allows four day early access (only on consoles) and playable Kurt Angle.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is now so big it has its own dedicated company, showing that Bluehole is keen on not being squeezed out of the battle royale market by its competitors.

Today games publisher Bluehole announced the PUBG Corporation, a new subsidiary made up of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds developers and helmed by game producer Chang-han Kim, who will serve as CEO for the company. The PUBG Corporation is making big plans for expansion across the globe to ensure the service-based shooter grows to new staggering heights; the company says it's established a branch in the United States, and will do the same in Europe and Japan.

The PUBG Corporation is just the beginning of Bluehole's plans for world domination. The company says it will launch a "variety of new businesses including esports and prepare for PUBG to become a global IP franchise."

Can't wait for the Call of Duty PC multiplayer beta to begin? Neither can developer Sledgehammer Games, who took to Twitter to announce that the PC beta is now live!

Originally set for a September 29 release, it appears that Sledgehammer Games were in a generous mood and released the PC beta a day early on Steam. There's been no official confirmation, but expect the beta to continue through to October 2 as originally planned.

A new Diablo game is in the works, but you better get used to waiting.

We've already reported that Blizzard is hiring for a new Diablo project (whether that's a mainline Diablo IV sequel and/or a Diablo II remaster a la StarCraft Remastered remains unclear), and we know the series will continue. After Josh Mosquiera left in July 2016, Blizzard opened a game director position up for "a new unannounced Diablo project". This director would be the "vision holder for the franchise, setting the creative goals for the team" and lead the Diablo series into the future. Blizzard might be planning the future of Diablo past the turbulent Diablo III, but that'll take time. Lots and lots of time.

Diablo III took ten years to develop, and according to Jason Schreier's new book Blood, Sweat and Pixels, the shadow of Diablo II loomed heavy on the team. The devs wanted to ensure Diablo II's legacy lived on, and filling the shoes of one of the best games ever made was very hard to do. This time around Blizzard will likely follow the same trajectory and focus on topping Diablo III in its current state, which, I admit, will be tough. Right now the series is fantastic to play on consoles and PC.

Rockstar Games made good on its promise by showcasing a new Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer, revealing new story details and absolutely incredible open-world environments full of polish. Another announcement sees a slight name change from "Red Dead Redemption 2" change to "Red Dead Redemption II".

According to Rockstar, the Western sequel (actually a prequel) revolves around outlaw Arthur Morgan and follows the bloody exploits of the infamous Van der Linde gang as they "rob, fight and steal their way across the vast and rugged heart of America in order to survive." Ran by Dutch Van der Linde, the trailer shows the band of outlaws ransacking their path across the Wild West. John Marston, the protagonist in the original game, ran with the gang before the events of Red Dead Redemption.

On another note, Sony confirmed that the new trailer was captured on a PlayStation 4. Rockstar is spinning some serious magic here and it's clear the delay made for some serious polish, but no release date was made--the game is still listed for "Spring 2018" on PS4 and Xbox One. A PC version of the game has yet to be announced.

With only two months until the official release of Star Wars Battlefront II, EA have revealed 11 maps and 5 game modes will be released at launch.

The 11 maps span across all three cinematic-eras, with 3 from the prequel-era (Kamino, Kashyyyk and Theed), 5 original trilogy-era (Death Star II, Endor, Mos Eisley, Yavin 4 and Hoth) and 3 from the Force Awakens-era (Starkiller Base, Jakku and Takodana).

5 game modes have been announced for launch, these include Strike where two teams of eight players compete in objective-based scenarios. Starfighter Assault pits two teams of pilots take control of fighters, bombers, interceptors, and hero ships and engage in multi-stage, objective based space battles. Heroes vs Villains is 4 vs 4 dream-dual where Star Wars' greatest characters are pitted against one another. Arcade is a single player focused (or on consoles, split-screen multiplayer) mode allowing you to take on AI enemies in multiple scenarios. And finally Galactic Assault, the grand attraction of Battlefront II, where players battle on large team-oriented, multi-stage objective-based maps for victory.

I reported earlier in the month that Killer Instinct will feature cross-play support between Xbox One, Windows 10 and Steam platforms, well the time has come... Killer Instinct is now available on Steam!

It's not all great news however for Steam users however, there appears to be no free-to-play version. Meaning you will have to pay $39.99 to be able to access the game, this includes all three seasons of characters, costumes, stages, dojo training and story mode, essentially the same as the purchasable Killer Instinct: Definitive Edition that's available on the other platforms. Currently Steam is offering 25% off, which is nice, but Windows 10 and Xbox Live offer the free-to-play base edition that entices new comers to the series.

Another interesting titbit is that your purchases on other platforms don't transfer to Steam, so if you've made any purchases on either Xbox One or Windows 10 versions, you'll still have to spend the $40 to play on Steam. This will discourage most people who have already invested in transactions or the Definitive Edition to switch to Steam.

Blizzard have officially released the Blizzard Battle.Net mobile app. This app is perfect for... well, not much at present. Currently the app only allows users to add friends, chat and see which games your friends are currently playing.

"If you've ever wanted to see what games your friends are playing while you're headed home on the bus, or quickly add a new friend you've met out on the town, now you can with the Blizzard Battle.net mobile app. Available for iOS and Android, the Blizzard Battle.net mobile app brings social features from the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app to your phone" said Blizzard.

Currently, the Blizzard Battle.net app is separate from the Blizzard Mobile Authenticator, I would expect these app's to merge and mirror Steam's mobile app over time. The app is available now via the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store.

Fortnite has been enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of gamers, but now Epic Games has launched the next part of the game: their new Battle Royale mode.

Fortnite Battle Royale features the same look and style of the core game, with a Battle Bus dumping gamers across the map, PUBG style. The game is out right now on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 with Epic Games noting over 1 million gamers were playing Fortnite Battle Royale on day one.

There has been some pretty major drama surrounding the release of Fortnite Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' developer Bluehole. Bluehole executive Chang Han Kim explained that Bluehole were "concerned" over the marketing of Fortnite Battle Royale.

Forza Motorsport 7 is one of the largest downloads of any game ever, with the base install of the game weighing in at 45GB, while the day one patch comes in at a hefty 50GB. A total of 95GB, which is insane.

But with what seems like a common occurrence in the gaming world these days, there were issues with some gamers' pre-loading of Forza 7. Some people are reporting that pre-loading gets interrupted, forcing gamers to re-download the entire 95GB of data.

Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3 experiencing similar pre-load issues, with all three games having the Windows Store in common. I'm not saying it's the Windows Store, but it's probably the Windows Store. 95GB of re-downloading is nearly impossible for some gamers. Even on a good connection that's a day of downloading, while those on slower DSL and cable connections might take entire days. Not everyone has 500Mbps+ fiber.

Final Fantasy XV has turned into a live game thanks to its massive volume of updates, and the lead development team is keen on adding more story-based content. But not for free.

Square Enix's Final Fantasy XV took a long, long time to make, but it doesn't exactly feel complete. Despite its incredible open world and engaging combat, here are still plot holes and things missing from the game. Game director Hajime Tabata wants to fix that. Mr. Tabata confirmed FFXV's content updates would continue well in 2018, even after the PC version launches. But story-based content takes a lot of effort so the team will have to sell it. And this means the game could get a second season pass.

Mr. Tabata recently told Japanese games magazine Famitsu that the Final Fantasy XV team will devise a new roadmap for the new content. To make money from this content, Mr. Tabata says the team is mulling over a second season pass, but this probably won't go over very well with fans (traditionally games with more than one season pass see considerable backlash, just like Evolve). The director plans to reveal this timeline sometime in November. Although the team is still working on Episode Ignis, the final story-based release in the current season pass, the team will start chipping away at the new post-release content after Episode Ignis is launched in December.

The global video games market will exceed $130 billion in revenues by 2021, analyst firm Juniper Research forecasts.

The billion dollar video games industry is poised to pull in $132 billion by 2021, according to a new report by Juniper Research. Unsurprisingly, the firm forecasts that the mobile gaming segment will earn the lion's share of these revenues thanks to the lucrative free-to-play gaming market, which typically monetizes gamers in the form of in-game purchases and lootboxes. According to IHS Markit analyst Piers Harding-Rolls, the console and PC gaming segment has made a smaller impact on total yearly earnings compared to mobile.

For the immediate future, analyst firms like SuperData predict the games industry will break $100 billion in revenues in 2017. The global interactive media market, which includes video games software, esports, streaming monetization, and virtual reality, is expected to peak at $104.6 billion in 2017, the firm says.

Nintendo's new SNES Classic Edition uses the same cheap (well cheaper) internal components as last year's massively hyped NES Classic Edition, but costs 33% more.

The SNES Classic Edition costs $80 compared to its predecessor's $50, but you won't be getting any new snazzy or upgraded hardware with your purchase (you do get an extra controller and a great library of games though). In fact, the SNES Mini has the exact same budget internal guts as its 8-bit sibling, right down to the Allwinner quad-core R16 SoC and 256MB of SK Hynix DDR3 RAM--even the board is 100% the same.

This essentially means that the SNES Mini's 21-game library will likely be expandable via hacks and other such ROM trickery just like the NES Mini.

The free PS Plus games for October prove Sony has made good on its promise to make the service more appealing.

The PlayStation Plus lineup for August, September, and now October have all included major AAA games, illustrating that Sony is serious about providing more value to subscribers. Sony, who's subscription services are a major boon for consistent revenues for its Games and Network Services Segment, is keen on increasing the number of PS Plus subscribers--as of May 2017 only 37% of active PS4 users subscribed to the $59.99 a year service. One of the best ways to attract gamers is to offer free games, but locking online multiplayer behind the service doesn't hurt either.

For PS4 owners, October's PS Plus lineup is another great month of titles. The offering includes the excellent Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain alongside the Amnesia collection that includes both horror classics. Combined with the subsequent months, Sony has delivered consistent mainline content with the service, but it took almost a year since PS Plus' $59.99 price hike to get to this point.

Volition, the developer of Saint's Row and the new Agents of Mayhem, has been faced with layoffs, sources familiar with the matter tell Kotaku's Jason Schreier.

Thirty employees have been fired from Volition's 200-person team, including general manager Dan Cermak who has been with the studio since 2003, the sources say. This effectively means Volition has lost 15% of its employees. The reason behind the layoffs is unknown, but it's possible the culprit is the studio's recent Agents of Mayhem game not hitting internal sales targets set forth by the publisher Deep Silver. The game currently has middling review scores and lukewarm reception from fans on Metacritic. To contrast, Saints Row IV, the last big game Volition made, sold over 1 million copies in its first week of availability.

Volition is currently owned by Deep Silver parent company Koch Media, who bought the company from THQ's asset auction in 2013 for $22.3 million. The publisher, nor the developer, have confirmed the veracity of this report, however three separate sources corroborated the layoffs to Kotaku.