Gaming - Page 944

System Shock and System Shock 2 are two of my favorite games of all time, especially the sequel which really ramped up SHODAN's plan to end your existence - so any news of System Shock 3 is great. The latest tease of the upcoming game has arrived in the form of concept art from the team.

Starbreeze and OtherSide Entertainment teased concept art for System Shock 3, but there wasn't any new information unveiled about the game.

Concept art is all we get for now, but with System Shock 3 being in early development, we can't expect too much right now.

The Mass Effect franchise has been put on hold as BioWare Montreal downsizes and transitions into a support studio for future EA projects, sources tell Kotaku's Jason Schreier.

It appears there are many reasons for EA's decision, including the poor reception of Mass Effect: Andromeda as well as BioWare's new IP (codenamed Dylan). As we reported earlier, BioWare is currently making a massive new online-based IP with staggering depth, and is set to be EA's unique answer to Destiny.

As such, two of BioWare's key studios have been contributing to the IP, including BioWare Austin, with BioWare Edmonton at the helm. Now it appears that BioWare Montreal will be joining the fray and the Mass Effect series will be put on hold, meaning the company's new IP should be its main focus for years to come.

EA recently announced that BioWare's new IP has been delayed, but something the company said really caught my eye: the new IP is heavily online-based so it'll be powered by EA's live services. When the publisher mentions live services, this typically means one big thing: microtransactions.

Electronic Arts makes a lot of money from digital live services, which include online-based content such as microtransactions, season pass DLC, map packs, and subscriptions. In fact, EA earned a whopping $1.68 billion from live services last year, or 55.4% of all digital net sales. Major live service breadwinners include FIFA Ultimate Team's blind-style purchase packs and Battlefield 1's season pass content. EA has confirmed this same model will power BioWare's new IP, possibly corroborating one of my biggest fears: the game will have microtransactions.

We've known for a while now that BioWare's new IP will be online-based, and we predicted that it'd be EA's unique answer to Destiny. EA says that the game will have "disruptive social designs" that "brings friends together in exciting new ways," and that it's a genre-melded game with action, RPG, and character-driven progression. But EA's new quotes strongly hint that microtransactions will help fund the game's content, not unlike Destiny.

Electronic Arts has delayed BioWare's massive new IP as far as 2019, and confirms that the game will be online-based with a new kind of social interactive component--corroborating our original predictions.

BioWare's core Edmonton studio has been developing a fresh new IP for the last five years, aiming to make the new IP a "clean sheet design with new concepts, new gameplay mechanics, and new stories set in a unique universe." EA has dropped key information on the new IP so far, saying that the game is action-based but also has genre-melding to combine RPG elements and deep story-driven characters, but with greater action and greater adventure than we're used to. Now EA confirms that the game will have live services, which indicates it'll be a strong online-based game like Destiny.

Sadly, EA has delayed the game into its FY19, which extends from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019.

Obsidian Entertainment isn't making Fallout: New Vegas 2, but may be working on a new project led by Fallout creator Tim Cain, sources tell TweakTown.

Obsidian isn't working on a sequel of Fallout: New Vegas, sources familiar with the matter affirm to TweakTown. The rumor was instigated by FragHero, and this marks the second time the report was debunked.

However, insider sources tell TweakTown that Obsidian may also be working on a secret new project with Fallout creator Tim Cain at the helm. Sources say that Obsidian is pushing towards establishing its own IPs rather than adaptations of publisher-owned franchises such as Fallout so the studio can have full creative control on the projects.

It's no surprise that key games publishers and industry movers make most of their money from consoles, but now we see just how big the divide actually is, especially for titans like EA.

Digital sales are extremely lucrative for EA simply because digital offers microtransactions, subscription services, DLC/season pass content, and an ever-evolving business model.

As a result, EA has earned most of its net revenue and net sales from digital content: in terms of net revenue, digital puled in $3.29 billion or 54% of EA's net revenue, versus physical's $1.78 billion.

On April 1, Overkill and H3H3 played a practical joke on the Payday community by announcing the "H3H3 Starter Pack," which brought Ethan into the game, beanie and all. Now Overkill is really doing it, and Hila is coming along as well.

YouTubers Ethan and Hila Klein of H3H3 Productions will bring some goofs, some gaffs, and a whole lotta laughs to Payday 2 this Fall. What started out as an April Fool's joke turned into a phenomenon, with tons of Payday and H3H3 fans asking for Ethan to really come to the heist shooter. So now he actually is, accompanied by his wife Hila.

"To the Payday community out there, we're excited to announce that we're adding Ethan and Hila as two playable characters to Payday 2. They're going to be available this Fall," said Almir listo, global brands producer at Starbreeze.

EA is one of the biggest players in the games industry, and the company's current yearly financials highlight all the ways the publisher has conquered the gaming world. Microtransactions, DLC, and live services are a massive revenue stream for EA, and this year alone the company pulled in $1.68 billion via digital content outside of full game downloads.

EA just reported positive Fiscal Year 2017 earnings from April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017, and something in particular caught my eye: EA is making money hand-over-fist with "recurrent consumer spending," aka microtransactions, and live services, ie season pass additions like extra maps and other priced DLC. Just how much is EA earning in this digital sector? Over $1 billion.

Electronic Arts pulled in $1.682 billion in digital net sales with live services across PC and console in FY2017. This value doesn't even include digital net sales earned from mobile, which amounts to $682 million.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of the best games ever made, and while it is selling a bunch of Nintendo Switch consoles, PC gamers are getting a huge tease of the game running at the glorious 4K resolution through Wii U emulator Cemu.

YouTuber 'CryZENx' has been hard at work on Breath of the Wild on the PC, with his latest build running at 4K 30FPS - which is a huge leap from the previous iterations of the game. Cemu took to Patreon in March, with 8000 backers on the project - and now the team is making $34,000 per month that they're pumping into the coding behind the scenes. The pay off? Zelda: Breath of the Wild at 4K 30FPS.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild was running through Cemu 1.7.5 at 4K on an Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.8GHz, and 2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti cards in SLI, with 32GB of DDR4 and an ASRock Z97 Extreme 4 motherboard. This is obviously a mountain of hardware compared to what's inside of the Switch, but still - Breath of the Wild has never looked any better.

Among the many changes Final Fantasy VII: Remaster has over the beloved PlayStation original, Cloud Strife--along with the rest of the cast--will have full voice acting. In fact, Cloud's voice in the Remaster will match the same tone and timber as in Advent Children, Kingdom Hearts, World of Final Fantasy, and other games.

In a recent Tweet, voice actor Steve Burton has confirmed he'll lend his voice to Cloud Strife in Square Enix's hotly anticipated Final Fantasy VII: Remake. "Hope you all have a great day. Flying to LA today for the Daytime Emmys this Sunday and a little voice over work for Cloud Strife. Much love," Burton wrote on Twitter.

Since Burton has voiced Cloud in fourteen games to date, including six Kingdom Hearts games, Dirge of Cerberus, Crisis Core, the aforementioned Advent Children, and two Dissidia Final Fantasy games, it makes sense for him to be on board for the Remake as well.

Today Valve released a new Steam feature to help point PC gamers towards titles they may not know about.

Valve just published an interesting bit of insight into their hopes and plans for Steam as a whole, and if you haven't read it yet, I urge you to check it out. Valve says it will publish a three-part series that discusses various features and changes coming to Steam, and the first part revealed a new feature that's coming to the platform today: algorithm-based predictions. This feature will point you towards games you may like, and gives you reasons based on your previous games library on why you may like said new game.

"We want to show you more of what [the black box algorithm] doing and why - and we have some features planned to help with this, starting with one we're launching today: an algorithm section on game pages that states why the Store thinks this game will (or will not) be interesting to you," Valve's Robin Walker wrote in the update. "This section will let you see inside the black box, and understand what the Store is thinking. We hope it will be useful whenever you're exploring the Store, but in particular, whenever you've navigated from an external web page directly to a specific game's Store page."

ROCCAT has transcended beyond gaming peripherals to make PC games, starting off with Sick City.

ROCCAT today announced its new games development studio, Roccat Games Studio, and its first-ever PC game called Sick City. The company says Sick City is a real-time tactical combat 4v4 squad-based game that incorporates mechanics and themes from classics like Commandos, Company of Heroes, and Warcraft 3 .

With this unique mashup the studio aims to "create a unique interpretation of action-based tactical combat" while also keeping the PC gaming community close to the game's development, integrating key feedback from players to shape the game.

The rumor mill is buzzing around Ubisoft's new ancient Egypt-based Assassin's Creed game, and now a purported leaked screenshot of the massive new game has surfaced.

Two days ago we reported that Assassin's Creed: Origins, Ubisoft's reported new game in the landmark series formally known as Assassin's Creed: Empire, might take place in Hellenistic Egypt. Rumor has it that the game will be a massive open-world endeavor with staggering freedom that allows players to sail across the Mediterranean from Egypt to Greece--complete with naval battles, cyclopean cities and world wonders, and much more. Now a possible source on Reddit has released what could be a screenshot from Assassin's Creed: Origins.

The purported source goes on to say that the bulk of Black Flag's dev team at Ubisoft Montreal worked on AC: Origins, and that the game is built within the company's new high-end next-gen Anvil Engine to allow a new dimension of seamless travel and exploration, not unlike Zelda: Breath of the Wild's living, breathing world.

I thought going into this story that the Elder Scrolls Anthology saved this gamers life because of a skill he learned within the game, but it physically saved 'verolok' from a stray bullet fired into his house - while he was gaming away playing Prey.

He heard the sound of shattered glass which made him lose attention to the game and see a cloud of drywall float into the room, and when he inspected around his room, he noticed a bullet hole in his wall.

The bullet flew into his physical copy of The Elder Scrolls Anthology, stopping next to the expansions for Morrowind.

id Software will be hosting a Large Scale Tech Test for Quake Champions starting May 12, running through to May 21 - and this time, it'll be open to everyone.

During the Tech Test, the Quake Champions servers will be online 24/7, unlike previous weekends. There will also be a new game mode used during the test, something id Software calls Sacrifice, which is a 4v4 team-based competitive mode that will see team mates working together to win.

Starting on May 12, id Software will drop the NDA that stopped people from talking about, streaming, or capturing footage of Quake Champions - so expect a flood of Quake Champions content in the next few days. All you need to do is sign up on the Quake Champions website, and you can take a shot at the game during the Large Scale Tech Test.

SEGA's Vanquish PC teasers are getting more and more obvious.

Following the celebrated release of Platinum's beloved hack-and-slash game Bayonetta on PC, SEGA has already promised that more of its classic franchises will come over to PC. This prompted fans to near-unanimously request another PlatinumGames gem: Vanquish.

And it appears SEGA will listen to its fans. The publisher first put a teaser for Vanquish inside Bayonetta's PC port, and now the publisher flagrantly teased it on its SEGA Europe Twitter account.

Rumor has it that Ubisoft's new Far Cry 5 could have a very different kind of setting: a Spaghetti Western FPS set in 19th century old west with gunslingers, cattle rustlers, and saloons.

The rumor was started by Nerdbite and YouTuber Silentc0re, who followed a string of clues from a particular newspaper called Great Falls Tribune. According to the Tribune, a film crew has arrived at a particular church in Montana to record a promo reel for an upcoming video game. Production teams will use video captured from 5,000 miles from California to Montana, strongly hinting at a Old West theme, especially since the church (Mni-Sda (Still Water) Presbyterian Church) has strong historical ties to Lakota Sioux Chief Sitting Bull.

"This is a sequel to an existing global franchise," Jeff Guillot, account director for production studio Nightcall Productions, who's involved with the shooting, told the Tribune.

Despite strong sales and acclaim of key Japanese titles, and the sense that overseas devs "make the best games", Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada doesn't think Japan will ever be at the top of the gaming world again.

Japan once reigned over the games industry, especially during the early days of console gaming. But over the years Western developers and publishers--including Europe and North America--slowly took back the industry from Japanese devs. Fast-forward to modern days and we see U.S.-based giants like Activision-Blizzard and EA conquering the market with key billion-dollar franchises, whilst Japanese companies like Capcom, Konami, SEGA, and Bandai Namco weather the market with strategic diversified footholds.

While Japanese games are typically heralded as the pinnacle of excellence--especially games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Persona 5--some key Japanese devs don't think the Land of the Rising Sun will ever be back on top.

Despite no official details on Dead Island 2, Deep Silver says the game is still in development and making progress.

Dead Island 2 has had a troubled development. The sequel was originally in development by German game dev Yager (Spec Ops: The Line), but the studio dropped out and handed development to Sumo Digital because the team had a "better understanding of the brand" without straying to far from Yager's original vision. Back in March 2016, Sumo Digital took over development of Dead Island 2...and then all updates and info ceased.

More than a year later, Dead Island 2 publisher has stayed quiet about the project. Eurogamer decided to break the silence and flat out ask the publisher what's happening with the sequel, and Deep Silver replied by saying the game hasn't been abandoned, and Sumo Digital is making exciting progress.

UPDATE: Sources close to Obsidian Entertainment tell TweakTown that Fallout: New Vegas 2 isn't in development, but Obsidian might be working on something better.

Sources say that Fallout creator Tim Cain is leading a new IP that will essentially be Obsidian Entertainment's answer to the Fallout universe, and may be a classic cRPG. Click here for more details.

Despite being quite busy developing a cRPG sequel, and outright denying the reports, rumors say Obsidian Entertainment is not only developing Fallout: New Vegas 2, but it'll be revealed at E3 2017.