Gaming - Page 943

343 Industries appears to be taking its time with Halo 6, and we already know the shooter wont release in 2017. However it appears the game probably won't get an official reveal in 2017 either.

Xbox division head Phil Spencer has already confirmed that Halo 6 won't be a Project Scorpio launch game. Since Microsoft's new 4K-ready Project Scorpio console will release Holiday 2017, that means Halo 6 won't be available this year. 343 Industries Bonnie Ross affirmed that Halo 6 would have many changes including split-screen co-op and multiplayer as well as a "compelling story" with stronger focus on Master Chief.

Now 343 Industries community manager Brian "Ske7ch" Jarrard confirms that Halo 6 won't be showcased at E3 2017. In fact, Jarrard confirmed Halo 6 won't even be showcased at Microsoft's Gamescom 2017 presence in Cologne, Germany. That's two major gameshows that Halo 6 will miss, strongly indicating we won't get an official reveal--or even a tease--in 2017.

You've got to give it to NVIDIA CEO and founder Jen-Hsun Huang, he has high hopes for gaming in the future, and simply oozes enthusiasm for the entire gaming market.

During NVIDIA's recent investor Q&A, Huang provided some updates on GeForce Now, NVIDIA's game streaming service. He said that GeForce Now is "years away" from becoming a major gaming service, but said that he believes every human will eventually be a gamer, and that there's only one way to do that: the cloud.

Huang said: "However, I'm optimistic about the opportunity to extend the GeForce platform beyond the gamers that we currently have in our installed base. There are several billion gamers on the planet. And I believe that every human will be a gamer someday, and every human will have some way to enjoy an alternative universe some way someday. And we would love to be the company that brings it to everybody. And the only way to really do that on a very, very large scale basis and reach all those people is over the cloud".

Fans of Remedy games have always wanted an Alan Wake sequel, but the developer strongly hints that it won't ever happen while confirming it's simply out of their hands.

"If we make an excellent game - and that's a massive investment - we would like to preserve the possibility that we can then continue those stories in future games as well. With Alan Wake and Quantum Break, that didn't work," Remedy Entertainment CEO Tero Virtala told GamesIndustry.biz. "Based on our past experiences, we have seen that it's really difficult. The decision is not in our hands unless the brand stays in our hands."

Remember that both Alan Wake and Quantum Break were developed in partnership with Microsoft, but Remedy actually owns Alan Wake as an IP--Microsoft owns the publishing rights for the first game. Remedy's point is reinforced by Alan Wake's recent delisting from all digital marketplaces due to expired music licenses. Remedy confirms that it's not up to them to renew the licenses, and they have no control over whether or not the game goes back up for sale.

SEGA's net profits have surged four-fold year-over-year, and the Japanese games-maker hopes to continue the strong momentum with a new business plan.

In Fiscal Year 2017 (April 1, 2016 thru March 31, 2017) SEGA reported profits attributed to parent (net profits) of $242.9 million, or 27.6 billion yen, representing a mighty 421% year-over-year increase. These Japanese entertainment company saw increases in sales and operating income, too; SEGA earned $3.23 billion (366.9 billion yen) in sales, up 5% year-over-year, and a tremendous increase in operating income with $259.7 million (29.5 billion yen), representing a 68% year-over-year increase.

SEGA's profits were boosted significantly due to strong performance of its amusement, digital entertainment, and resort segments; SEGA shipped 17 games overseas which performed quite well in sales, and enjoyed surges in mobile games and pachislot/pachinko revenue.

SEGA has promised to revitalize and revive classic IPs with new releases on mobile, console and PC, and it even promised to make new IPs to boot. However, it appears SEGA will take these new games very seriously instead of issuing halfway remasters and PC ports.

While scouting SEGA's latest financials, I found something interesting: the company plans to spend $31.7 million more on research and development for its games entertainment sector than it did last year. In fact, SEGA plans to spend $455.1 million (51.7 billion yen) on research and development in FY2018, which is a 7% increase from last year's $423.4 million (48.1 billion yen).

This underlines SEGA's promise of "focused investment on promising titles," and its four-part IP structure plan: revival IPs, existing IPs, new IPs, and external IPs. The company says it will "expand existing IPs and obtain new IPs for North American and European PC games," as well as "revive major IPs."

SEGA plans to revitalize and revive older dormant IPs in its back catalog of games, but the publisher will be careful to only bring back and port over more popular games.

In SEGA's Road to 2020 briefing the Japanese publisher discusses its future plans for Fiscal Year 2018 and beyond, saying that it plans to tap its wealth of popular IPs and spread them across all major platforms--mobile, PC, and console. This revitalization will happen on both physical packaged game sales and digital games, albeit in different capacities: SEGA says that it will select titles carefully, aiming for bigger hits via popular and profitable franchises and IPs.

But it's main goal is to "create IPs that will become global hits," suggesting its games will see more localization than ever before. SEGA will now be IP-focused instead of device-focused, and aim to stretch all strong IPs across mobile, PC and consoles.

On the heels of the mega-popular Pokemon GO mobile game, Nintendo partner The Pokemon Company plans to release a smartphone trading card app to tie into the popular collectible card game.

When done right, digital trading card games are incredibly profitable. Wizards of the Coast's Magic: The Gathering Online comes to mind, as does Blizzard's massively profitable Hearthstone, the latter of which just passed the 70 million player milestone and helped earn Activision $3.6 billion in monetized revenue. Now The Pokemon Company aims to bring its strong Pokemon collectible card game to the mobile gaming sector.

Sources tell The Wall Street Journal's Takashi Mochizuki that Pokemon Co. is making a new mobile card game application for smartphones.

Move over, Mario: Link is slated to arrive on Shiekah Slates smartphones via a new Nintendo-branded mobile game.

Following the success of it's latest smartphone game Fire Emblem: Heroes, Nintendo is planning a new mobile game based in the popular The Legend of Zelda series, sources tell The Wall Street Journal. Sources say that the Zelda smartphone game will happen after Animal Crossing game is released in 2H 2017, but the timing could change at any point.

No official details were released, and The Wall Street Journal's sources don't say which monetization model the new Zelda game will follow; will it be the more traditional microtransaction-based "gacha" model like Fire Emblem Heroes, or will it be Nintendo's favored, but far less lucrative, free-to-start model like Super Mario Run?

Xbox is no longer just about gaming--in fact, it hasn't been for a long time, the same way the games industry is less about actual gaming and more about recurrent profits via live services, engagement, and social infrastructures. Xbox is more diverse now and offers a more widespread social ecosystem via Xbox LIVE where players meet up, interact, play, share and feel rewarded, and even enjoy cross-platform features via Windows 10 PCs. At Microsoft's Financial Analyst Briefing 2017, Xbox division head Phil Spencer reveals how Xbox LIVE's social ecosystem serves as the core for Xbox business as a whole.

Microsoft's Xbox LIVE marketplace doesn't just make its money by selling games. In fact, the network sells something more important than digital content: digital engagement, also known as the bread and butter for juggernaut publishers like EA, Activsion, and Ubisoft. In its own way, engagement is a form of currency as it directly feeds a tried and true turntable formula that consistently generates revenue streams.

Microsoft has tapped its own games as a service model via Xbox LIVE, and has incorporated it within both consoles and PCs for maximum effect. But this model isn't just about peddling digital content--it's about selling an experience, bottling an online digital experience that keeps the wheel-cycle turning, and social interactivity as at the core of this. This is something that all digital games providers strive to achieve, and Microsoft has honed this advantage to a fine edge. Outside of Windows integration, this is Xbox LIVE's major asset over Sony's PlayStation Network: a wide over-arcing social network that incorporates the engagement cycle, which rotates game experiences, social interactions, monetization via advertisements, and millions of active users in a lucrative subscription plan that has a life of its own.

Square Enix plans to use its original IPs and backward compatible content to pursue "games as a service" initiatives in an effort to supplement its lucrative digital sales.

Like most publishers in the games industry, Square Enix makes most of its earnings via digital sales in the form of full game downloads, in-game purchases, and other live service content across consoles, PC, and mobile. In its Fiscal Year 2017 earnings report, the Japanese games publisher says it will launch a "Square Enix digital sales global website" that will "create a libraty of catalog titles and eliminate backward compatibility issues."

This strongly suggests Square Enix will roll out its own dedicated Steam-like games marketplace to sell digital content, possibly complete with a proprietary uPlay-like games launcher; but unlike Steam, Square Enix's website or service should cater to all platforms.

If you haven't played Alan Wake yet, you'll want to grab it soon--starting Monday the game will effectively be extinct on digital stores.

Celebrated thriller Alan Wake will be pulled from all digital multi-platform storefronts such as Xbox LIVE, PlayStation Network, Steam, and GOG.com, starting Monday, May 15, Remedy Entertainment today announced. The developer explains that Alan Wake's music licenses are expiring next Monday, and rather than renew or re-negotiate the licenses, the game will simply disappear from the marketplace.

Remedy affirms the game will only be scrubbed from the storefront, not games libraries, so if you already own Alan Wake you've nothing to worry about. To ensure as many people play the game before it gets nixed, Remedy is holding the Alan Wake Sunset Sale on Steam, which discounts the franchise by 90%. The sale will start on Saturday, May 13.

A new installment of the Thief franchise is in development to coincide with an upcoming movie adaptation, production company Straight Up Films affirms.

Following the success of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed movie, Square Enix plans to adapt its popular long-running dark action Thief franchise into a feature-length film. Los Angeles-based production company Straight Up Films will make the Thief movie, and recently said that a new Thief game is currently in development for launch alongside the film's theatrical release.

"Originally released in 1998 by Eidos Interactive (Deus Ex) and distributed by Square Enix (Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy), the Thief series has spanned over fifteen years and four sequels continually retaining loyal audiences and attracting new fans with each iteration. Widely considered to be one of the greatest games ever created, a fifth sequel is currently in development to be released in step with this motion picture adaptation," Straight Up Films said in a recent website post.

Update: After writing this news and it going live, I was informed that Sokolovsky received a suspended 3.5-year jail sentence, and was temporarily confined to a pre-trial detention center. Sokolovsky's lawyer said that he most likely won't appeal the verdict.

I'm sure there have been gamers that have played Pokemon GO in some of the weirdest places imaginable, but now there's been a Russian blogger who was arrested for playing Pokemon GO in a Russian church.

The blogger was slapped with charges that ranged from "violating religious feelings" to illegal possession of a pen that had a camera inside, with Ruslan Sokolovsky receiving a sentence of 3.5 years behind bars. Sokolovsky posted a video of himself playing Pokemon GO in the church, with Russian authorities saying that he showed "disrespect for society".

UPDATE: Blizzard has officially confirmed the $20 million Overwatch League registration fee report is false, and cautions gamers about trusting unnamed sources. Blizzard delivered the following clarifying statement to Glixel:

Original story is as follows.

Forza Horizon 3 has been updated on the PC, with developer Turn 10 increasing the number of concurrent threads used by the render architecture, which squeezes DX12 even further to use more of your PC that is normally tucked away and hidden.

Turn 10 has also updated Forza Horizon 3's threading affinity model, so it will use more of your CPU threads. This means that PC gamers will get better performance out of the game in CPU limited situations on High/Ultra graphics settings. The new update will be pushed out through the Windows Store, with Turn 10 also adding in support for a slew of steering wheels on the PC.

PC Update Improvements

We originally predicted that Star Wars: Battlefront II would have microtransactions, and here's how EA reinforced our forecast with some very specific descriptions.

Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson recently affirmed that Battlefront II would launch with three times as much content as the original Battlefront game. Given what I already suspect to be true, I immediately wondered how much of this content would be gated off behind in-game purchases. Wilson said that Battlefront II would have an extensive live service plan that will add more content to the game over time, which is typical for all of EA's big online-based games. To understand how this live service equates to microtransactions, we have to take a look at how EA defines live services, and what they mean.

"Star Wars Battlefront II will have more than three times the content of the previous game at launch, with a brand new story, a new singleplayer campaign, new modes, characters, vehicles and planets from all eras in the Star Wars universe, as well as a live service plan that will continue to add even more fun for the global community. " Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson said in the company's recent earnings call.

Star Wars: Battlefront II will release on November 17 with triple the amount of content that it's predecessor offered at launch.

EA has put considerable effort into hyping up Star Wars: Battlefront II, affirming gamers that all the features they wanted will be available. With the help of three studios--DICE, EA Motive and Criterion--EA has packed Battlefront II with a fully-fledged offline singleplayer campaign that connects Return of the Jedi with The Force Awakens, split-screen co-op, maps from all three eras, 20v20 multiplayer, galactic space battles, and a new class-based system. Now EA goes a step further by saying Battlefront II will feature three times as much content than the original Star Wars: Battlefront remake did at launch.

"We're also incredibly excited to bring Star Wars Battlefront II to the massive Star Wars community later this year. This game is made possible by the collaboration of three incredibly talented studios - DICE, Motive and Criterion - bringing together their individual strengths and building on the feedback from our passionate fans.

The international games industry will hit an astronomical $108.9 billion in 2017, and continue to grow to $128.5 billion by 2020, market analyst firm Newzoo predicts.

Newzoo's latest Global Games Market Report delivers some fascinating and mind-blowing predictions for the games industry, especially for mobile gaming. According to the report, 2.2 billion gamers are expected to a staggering $108.9 billion in games market revenues in 2017 alone, which represents a year-over-year increase of 7.8% (or $7.8 billion). The report also forecasts that digital will account for 87% of total revenues, or $94.4 billion, but remember that digital includes all facets of digital gaming--not just game sales: subscriptions and subscription-based services, microtransactions/DLC/add-ons, live services, freemium mobile games, full game downloads across all platforms (PSN, Xbox LIVE, Steam, GoG, etc), and other content.

The analyst firm says that mobile is by far the most lucrative segment in global gaming, and is projected to make up more than half of the games market by 2020. In 2017, mobile gaming (smartphone and tablets) is expected to hit $46.1 billion, or 42% of all revenues. This represents a 19.3% year-over-year increase. As mobile is digital-only, it's one of the major prime movers for the digital sector, and crosses over between full game downloads and in-game purchases.

Square Enix today announced that it will be breaking away from Hitman developer IO Interactive, but the publisher will still retain the ownership of the Hitman franchise.

Square Enix spent $43.05 million (4.989 billion yen) to de-couple itself from IO Interactive, which used to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Square Enix. Essentially the publisher carved a piece of itself off to make it more lean and profitable, shedding IO Interactive for undisclosed reasons, however we think it's because Hitman 2016 didn't perform to Square Enix's expectations. The publisher's statement is a bit confusing, but it seems to indicate that Square Enix made an agreement with IO Interactive to terminate their business contract, and paid the studio part--or all--of the $43.05 million in "extraordinary loss of income." Note that extraordinary in this sense is used as "uncommon or irregular," not to denote size or value.

"To maximize player satisfaction as well as market potential going forward, we are focusing our resources and energies on key franchises and studios. As a result, the Company has regrettably decided to withdraw from the business of IO INTERACTIVE A/S, a wholly‐owned subsidiary and a Danish corporation, as of March 31, 2017," Square Enix said in a statement.

Payday developer Overkill has released new info about its upcoming The Walking Dead online shooter, and the details are quite interesting.

Overkill's The Walking Dead game is an online-based multiplayer shooter with dynamic drop-in/drop-out co-op. The game will have classes, as well as new unique characters that have set classes and abilities based on their personalities. Robert Kirkman's Skybound is collaborating on the project to ensure the game preserves authenticity, and from what I've seen and heard, this could be the ultimate TWD game. Key Overkill devs discussed the game's details on Starbreeze's recent Starstream livestream, revealing fresh info about the once-mysterious shooter.

"Overkill's the walking dead is a multiplayer online first person shooter in which you will need to co-operate with your friends to fight your way through an apocalyptic Washington, DC," said Saul Gascon, Executive Producer. "We designed the game so that players can jump in and out whenever they want, so they can do one mission, five missions, twenty missions in sessions like fifteen minutes or two hours if they want to. We want to incorporate what we've learned from Payday 2, and fun is our main focus."