Gaming - Page 929

Console-makers like Sony and Microsoft tend to buffer sales of their respective hardware with first-party exclusives, but the market has changed very much over the years, and console gamers gravitate more towards third-party blockbusters from the Big Four (Activision, EA, Ubisoft and Take-Two) .

Microsoft has a problem with exclusives, but Sony has a problem with strong monetization of its platform and the future-proofing of the PlayStation brand beyond consoles. Both console-makers have their respective shortcomings and issues. According to Webdush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, who's outspoken comments have earned him a following, exclusives don't matter nearly as much as they used to: despite the outcry from so-called "fanboys" only 1/5th or 20% of actual gamers buy into PlayStation 4 or Xbox One with exclusives in mind.

"That said, I think exclusives only make a difference to about a fifth of the market or 20%," Mr. Pachter said in a recent interview with GamingBolt.

Ubisoft has made good on its promise to bring loot boxes to Rainbow Six: Siege.

Rainbow Six: Siege's loot crate-like Alpha Packs are gradually being introduced with new live updates. These Alpha Packs only contain cosmetic rewards and can't actually be purchased with the game's R6 premium currency, so you can't actually spend real money to directly unlock them, as we revealed last month. However, you can spend R6 currency to get more Renown, so there is an indirect path.

Alpha Packs can only be unlocked with Renown, which is the game's experience-like currency doled out at the end of every match. Gamers can earn these packs in two ways: the game may reward them randomly to players at the end of matches, or players can spend their Renown to directly unlock packs. Alpha Packs contain skins and other cosmetics to add more flair to player Operators. To get an idea of what's included in the Alpha Packs, YouTuber Jytus opens up 200 packs in the video above.

Oculus might have lit the VR world on fire with its recent Rift and Touch bundle price drop to $399 for the next 6 weeks, but Amazon is joining in on the bundle price bonanza with their new Xbox One S Halo Wars 2 bundle.

Amazon's new Xbox One S bundle is part of their Prime Day sales, which is for Prime members only - at just $289.99 for the 1TB Xbox One S Halo Wars 2 bundle that comes with a Play & Charge kit. It also arrives with an additional white wireless controller, and digital versions of Forza Motorsport 6, Halo 5: Guardians, and ReCore - representing a huge 31% discount, saving $127.91.

If you don't want the Halo Wars 2 bundle, there's the 500GB Xbox One S console with the same digital games for just $239, which is an even better deal if you didn't want HW2. This is a larger savingsf of 35%, or $128.93. Not bad at all. This deal runs out tomorrow, so jump in now.

Ex-Gears of War designer's new arena FPS Lawbreakers may have gravity-defying combat, but it could still crash to the ground.

Blizzard's Overwatch typically dominates today's class-based shooters. 2K and Gearbox tried to squeeze into the sidelines with Battleborn only to be crushed and forced into free-to-play territory just to stay alive. If recent beta stats are any indication, Boss Key Productions' new shooter Lawbreakers could follow the same unfortunate path as its now F2P forebear.

Even during its free open beta test, Githyp notes that Lawbreakers failed to attract a strong flow of users on Steam. Over its eight-day period the Lawbreakers open beta saw a peak of 7,500 users per hour when it kicked off on June 28, and the player count steadily declined over the next seven days to an average of about 3,500 players per hour. On the last day of the beta there were about 1800 peak PPH.

Capcom's new massive Monster Hunter MMO looks like a living, breathing world replete with dynamic environments, enemies, and so much more.

Monster: Hunter World might be Capcom's most ambitious game in recent memory. The new entry brings the Monster Hunter series into an incredibly vibrant open world that may even rival Zelda: Breath of the Wild's Hyrule in its dynamic interactivity, and matches this robust backdrop with a drop-in/drop-out online co-op system that unites Japanese and Western players for the first time. In many ways the game resembles MMO-style worlds with a staggering level of depth, allowing players to really interact with and user their surroundings to take down fearsome monsters.

As a Monster Hunter fan, I'm beyond excited to see a mainline MonHun come back to consoles, especially one that has cross-play on consoles and PC. But the sheer depth of the world itself is massively impressive: creatures roam across the wilderness as you lead a giant fearsome dino into traps strewn throughout the jungle, using the very environment as a tactical weapon. The game gives us all the tools to make the flora and fauna into deadly assets for our hunts.

Square Enix and developer PlatinumGames admit they can't fix NieR: Automata's PC port alone, and need the help of video card makers like AMD and NVIDIA.

NieR: Automata has gone almost four months without an official patch to fix its myriad of issues on PC, including frame rate drops, crashes, and other bugs. Despite releasing excellent PC ports of its classic games like Bayonetta and Vanquish, PC gamers thought that developer PlatinumGames has given up on NieR: Automata's PC flavor...but the developer says otherwise.

As it turns out, NieR's PC woes aren't something that PlatinumGames nor Square Enix can fix on their own. The issues are apparently hardware-related meaning AMD and NVIDIA must be involved in the updating process. AMD has already issued a set of Crimson drivers that fixed crashing, but more hardware-based updates are needed to get the game in a pristine state.

DICE has laid out their plans for Battlefield 1 for the rest of the year, with the developer calling it a "revolution". The start of this begins with providing maps for BF1 in the Premium Pass, with DICE launching their new free Premium Trials initiative for Battlefield 1.

The newly updated roadmap for Battlefield 1 includes the first Premium Trials maps as Prise de Tahure, Nivelle Nights, while the other four maps from the 'They Shall not Pass' DLC. Premium Friends will stay with BF1 through to Gamescom, while the roadmap kicks off with 'In the Name of the Tsar' which is due in September. The third DLC pack will be Turning Tides, something that will throw naval battles into the mix alongside land and air battles.

I'm sure you've heard about EA DICE pushing Battlefield 1 into the world of EA Access (for Xbox One) and Origin Access (for the PC)... which means if you subscribe to either of those services, you'll get everything Battlefield 1 has to offer as long as your subscription is live.

I thought it was a troll at first... but Valve has released an update for the original Half-Life, yes the original Half-Life.

Half-Life received its last update in 2013 with Valve releasing a beta patch for the game, but now there's a new minor update that fixes up some random crashes and bugs. The new patch for Half-Life will be auto-downloaded from Steam, with a full changelog below:

Project CARS 2 will be one of the biggest releases of the year, and another fact for that is that the team is including 60 'living' tracks that will feature 4 seasons of weather with full day/night transitions and I'm sure, beautiful weather effects.

Last week we wrote about Project CARS 2 having over 180 cars to select from, with developer Slightly Mad Studios teasing that Project CARS 2 will have the largest track roster for any console, with 60 tracks and 130 layouts. The official website for SMS states: "Whether it's running your classic Group C at period-specific Hockenheim, or one of the over-a-dozen modern GT3s at the Circuit de la Sarthe, gunning your IMSA GTO around the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca or taking your IndyCar through Turn 1 at the Indianapolis Speedway, sliding your Honda Civic Coupé GRC rallycross through the mud at Lydden Hill or simply taking one of the world's Holy Trinity of hypercars to the scanned Nordschleife for a dawn run through the mist, Project CARS 2 has your passion covered".

Better yet, Project CARS 2 will feature full day/night transitions, with 4 different seasons of weather: rain, wind, snow, ice, and mist. Project CARS 2 launches on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 on September 22.

Samsung smart 4K TV owners can now stream Steam games from their PC right to their TV.

Samsung has rolled out an app that will enable PC-to-TV game streaming similar to Valve's Steam Link peripheral. The app, which is currently in its beta stage and only available to owners of Samsung's smart 4K UHD TV lineup, enables 1080p 60FPS game streaming across a Wi-Fi or wired home network. Valve notes that every game on Steam can be streamed in this way (users tapping the might of their desktop PCs to power remote Steam gaming), but 5GHz networks are advisable for demanding games.

This latest move is a result of Valve's partnership with Samsung to conveniently bring PC gaming into the living room space without any extra costs--a partnership that was announced at Steam's Dev Days event in 2016. A global release of the app is currently planned for a Summer launch.

Psyonix's mega-popular Rocket League has just celebrated its second birthday, and the developers celebrate with some impressive metrics.

Rocket League is a prime example of an indie that has the envy of major publishers. In just two years, an estimated 33 million gamers have bought copies on all major platforms including PS4, Xbox One and PC, and are responsible for 1.5 billion matches played. Even after an explosive first year with $110 million in earnings, Pysonix's speed sports racer shows no signs of slowing down.

According to developer metrics, Rocket League has a massive weekly, monthly, and daily average players of 1.6 million, 3.3 million, and 6.1 million respectively. That's right, an average of 6.1 million users play Rocket League on consoles and PC. PS4 users make up most of that number with 47% of active players, with Xbox One behind at 32% with PC seeing 27% of the total active playerbase--given the PS4's massive 60 million strong install base this shouldn't be surprising.

Massively popular PC game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is getting an exclusive weekly showcase on Facebook.

Social media titan Facebook is making a stronger push into games-based streaming in an effort to pull more viewers away from Twitch and YouTube. The company today announced that it has signed an exclusive deal with PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds developer Bluehole to host a weekly live three-hour stream centered around the hit game. Key Bluehole developers will showcase exclusive in-game content on the weekly Facebook show, while discussing and highlight features for new viewers. The show will be hosted by both community members and top content creators as well as Bluehole devs.

"Facebook and the Bluehole team have a shared belief in the power of gaming communities, and PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS is a stunning example of a hit game guided directly by its fans," said Leo Olebe, Director of Global Games Partnerships at Facebook. "BATTLEGROUNDS is just as much fun to watch as it is to play, and we're excited to see some of the best PUBG creators bring exclusive content to Facebook to help fuel its growing community on the platform."

Hackers have accessed the Nintendo Switch's OS kernel and will soon be able to jailbreak the system.

Nintendo's new Switch handheld-console hybrid has taken the world by storm with its transforming dual form factor: the Switch can play games both on-the-go as a handheld as well as at home as a console. The Switch has been a prime target for hackers for many of the same reasons--being able to load up ROMS of classic games and emulators and unlock hidden features of the device essentially makes the Switch into a veritable treasure trove of potential.

Now hackers are apparently one step closer to cracking the console and opening the doors to homebrew emulation on the device. Hacker and exploit-finder Derrekr6 claims that hackers now have access to the Switch's kernel. The Switch runs on a customized operating system based on the FreeBSD kernel, similar to the PS4, and shares elements of Android to boot. With access to the Switch's kernel, hackers can manipulate the console in key ways. The kernel acts as a middleman between applications and hardware, and manages communication between software and hardware.

Last week ARK: Survival Evolved developer Studio Wildcard increased the price of their game from $30 to $60, setting the internet on fire before its August 8 release on PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

Now we've had DayZ creator Dean Hall on Twitter, blasting the developers where he said: "Just so we're clear on my opinion: the price increase for ArK is ****ing OUTRAGEOUS". He continued, adding: "ArK: The game is nowhere near ready for that kind of price. It's greed - pure and simple. It represents a huge disconnect with the community".

Hall continued on Twitter, with people tweeting him back, look at the Twitter chain here:

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter has more predictions on Sony's next move in the games industry, but a non-iterative PS5 could cause lots of problems for Sony's current smoothly-rolling console roadmap.

With the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the cadence of games consoles has evolved to an iterative cycle that sees both systems branch out into a family of hardware. This move brings tremendous advantages like multiple systems with different price and performance tiers as well a full games compatibility on all consoles, but forced parity typically reduces performance potential.

Despite predictions that the iterative cycle will ensure a longer generation of consoles than the typical 8-year cycle, Sony Interactive Entertainment of America President and CEO Shawn Layden hinted the PlayStation 5 would break this rhythm and revert back to the traditional console market beat.

A new Assassin's Creed: Origins gameplay video shows some alpha footage...but it's not so exciting.

As a history buff fascinated with ancient Egypt, I have high hopes for Assassin's Creed: Origins. After all I've always wanted to see Egypt recreated in painstaking detail in a game like Assassin's Creed, and wrote up a big article explaining the possibilities. But the latest 20-minute gameplay video published by UK retailer GAME doesn't fill me with confidence.

The footage shows a world that doesn't seem alive. Sure the environments look great, and I for one will spend quite a lot of time simply soaking in the ancient atmosphere, but the vibrant and dynamic next-generation NPCs that I saw in Watch Dogs 2 simply aren't here. Bayek, the game's protagaonist, just seems like a god of sorts; no matter what the player did, the world itself didn't seem to react as I'd expect an impressive open-world would.

EA recently revealed that Battlefield 1, the publisher's massively popular shooter, will soon be included as part of the publisher's $5 a month subscription service. We analyze why EA is now comfortable with offering Battlefield 1 to EA/Origin Access subscribers instead of pushing players to buy the full game at retail price.

Battlefield 1 isn't a year old yet, but soon it'll be available as a "free" download for EA Access and EA Origin subscribers on console and PC. The service, which costs $5 a month or $50 a year, gives users access to a growing pool of EA titles. I found Battlefield 1's arrival into the vault to be very, very interesting, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized EA's gameplan and decided to share my insights.

Why would EA make such a move? The publisher obviously has strong confidence in the subscription service and is keen on providing value. But it also has to do with how EA sees the World War I juggernaut FPS. The shooter has matured and reached the point where EA is more interested in getting people into the game's ecosystem rather than having them buy the game at full price.

Konami passed up a rare opportunity to accumulate big sales for its Castlevania series of games.

After watching the new Castlevania show on Netflix, I instantly wanted to play a Castlevania game. I'm sure I'm not alone here. The four-episode mini-series pulled us into that gothic world of devils and medieval mayhem, and I found myself wanting to further that experience in the best way I know how: video games.

But alas, Konami made no effort to roll out a new game or experience to commercial take advantage of my nostalgic whims. For millions of people, the Netflix series will be the first time they've experienced the franchise, and without an instantly accessible new product, they might not know where to start to further their experience. And more importantly, if they have to buy new hardware just to play the games, they may simply move on.

If there is a big rumor for the PlayStation 5 it would be the latest news on it, with the PS5 rumored to not just hit 4K, but be capable of driving it at 240FPS. Ridiculous, right?

A few weeks ago I was told exclusively that the PS5 would feature a dedicated GPU, something that would help drive 4K 60FPS... but 4K @ 240FPS Is an entirely new game. There's no amount PC hardware available that will easily drive 4K @ 240FPS, especially not a mainstream console.

Well, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Patcher has said that the PS5 Pro will be backwards compatible with both PS4 and PS4 Pro games, and it'll be here in 2019. Patcher was recently interviewed by Gaming Bolt, where he said: "I really like Shawn and I don't think he is attempting to mislead anybody. The PlayStation 4 Pro is better [from a technical perspective] than the PS4, so I think that's a half step towards the PlayStation 5".

Chinese gaming titan Tencent will extend the reach of its top-earning mobile game to Europe and the United States, sources say.

Since its release in 2015, mobile Honor of Kings has risen to the top of Tencent's billion-dollar domestic earnings, establishing the game as a titan among its peers. The wholly-owned and developed game has since become a craze with over 50 million daily active users in January, bringing in an estimated $441 million in April via in-app purchases--thus making Honor of Kings the company's most profitable property.

But this success comes at a cost. Tencent has faced opposition domestically in response to the game's strong pull. China's state newspaper People's Daily called the game "poison" and "harmful to the psychology of minors" due to its addicting nature, and called for stronger regulation of the games industry.